


drums of the city rain

by prophecygrl



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, M/M, Mental Health Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-04-07 17:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 38,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19089385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prophecygrl/pseuds/prophecygrl
Summary: Newly sober Klaus is a surprisingly fantastic barista. The fast paced work and constant chatter does wonders for keeping his mind off of darker things. The pretty face of a new regular certainly doesn't hurt, either!





	1. death by sugar

**Author's Note:**

> I've worked at a couple different cafes now, and spend half my shifts nowadays thinking about how great klaus would be as a barista, so here he is, doing just that. dave will appear soon, i promise!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've worked at a couple different cafes now, and spend half my shifts nowadays thinking about how great klaus would be as a barista, so here he is, doing just that. dave will appear soon, i promise!

The sun shining outside meant business was slower than usual. Weirdly enough, winter were the busy months of the cafe. They didn’t have a patio, but they did have a couple fireplaces, meaning people tended to head to the competition just down the road during the summer, with their big stupid patio, and then they made their way back as it got colder again.

Today happened to be so hot that Klaus thought that he was about to melt, and he was complaining about it very loudly.  
“We get it. You’re basically the wicked witch of the west,” his coworker, Ella, said. “Just make yourself a cold brew, and quit complaining. You’re already wearing less than the rest of us!”

Klaus looked down at himself, and grinned. He was wearing a rainbow crop top and a skirt that brushed the bottom of his thighs. The look was only made work appropriate by the dark pink apron they all had to wear. 

“I didn’t tell you to wear jeans today, babe, you did this to yourself,” Klaus shot back. Ella laughed, and agreed, before jumping away to help a customer who had just walked in.  
Klaus bit his lip as he eyed their syrups, trying to decide what to make. Ella had the right idea about a cold drink. He hummed to himself, grabbing a 20 ounce cold cup, and filling it with ice. He hesitated before pumping it with toasted marshmallow and raspberry, filling the rest of the cup with chocolate milk. Klaus finished topping it up with chocolate whipped cream before looking up to catch Ella looking at him with horror. 

“What?” Klaus asked innocently, swiping his finger in the whipped cream and licking.  
“You’re going to die such an early death,” Ella said with a laugh. “Death by sugar.”  
“It’s a miracle I’ve managed to live til twenty-three, I’m convinced this is my middle age,” Klaus said.

And it was true. All his siblings had been surprised and mildly proud that he’d even made it past twenty. Klaus had dealt with some major mental illness problems since he was as young as he could remember. He could remember not being any older than four, and waking up screaming at the dark presence he felt in the corner of his room. Klaus would have meltdown after meltdown, crying at things no one else could see, and eventually, his parents grew sick of it. 

Klaus wound up in an abusive foster home, which certainly didn’t help things. The older he got, the more his illness seemed to change. He rarely saw things anymore, but developed a heavy depression with a side of self hatred. Despite being a terrible foster father, Mr Hargreeves managed to keep a hold of the kids. He was a powerful politician, and his assistant, Mr Pogo, had convinced him taking in a few kids would help his public image. Hargreeves took in seven children, all aged within a year of each other. It was a process, and he got all the kids over the course of two years, but Pogo had been right.

The public loved Hargreeves, but the children he fostered hated him with a passion. He was cruel and hateful towards them. He rarely ever raised a hand against them, but that wasn’t to say he never did so. Hargreeves would lock them up alone for days if they spoke out too much, and would take away meals as punishment for a low test score. The old man always said he was just trying to push them to their fullest potential, to make them the best they could possibly be, but it only resulted in all the children become stunted in every way they could possibly be. Emotionally, socially, mentally. None of them escaped sane. Half of them are in therapy, and the other half should be, but never bothered.

The only saving grace of their childhood had been that the kids all liked each other. None of them considered Hargreeves their father, not even Luther who had been with him the longest. They didn’t even have to consider each other as brothers and sisters, since Hargreeves didn’t encourage any kind of family dynamic, and they weren’t officially adopted. But they did, and it was the only way they survived. 

They all noticed as Klaus began to self medicate when they were around eleven, three years after they’d all been in the house together. It started off subtle and small, just a capful of NyQuil before bed. Then two capfuls. And then it was cigarettes, which led to weed, which led to pills. By the time they were fourteen, Klaus was snorting coke on the regular. Hargreeves had threatened to send Klaus back to into the system, but his siblings spoke up, making threats right back. They’d make statements to the local news, detailing how horribly Hargreeves treated them. So Klaus stayed and his siblings tried to help, especially Ben and Diego, but they couldn’t devote all their time to him; they had their own issues, too. 

They aged out of the system one by one over the course of a year. Luther first, who much to the shock of his siblings, stayed an extra couple of months, before moving into a small apartment and getting a full time job as a personal trainer. Allison was next, who immediately used her last name to get cast in an indie film. Then Ben, who moved into res of their local university to study journalism. Diego, who joined the police academy, Five, who moved into res, too, to study astrophysics. Vanya, who was offered first chair in their cities main orchestra. 

Klaus was alone in the giant house for two months. Those two months alone were all it took for Klaus’ life to take a turn for the worse, which honestly, nobody had thought was possible. He had almost OD’d three times over the course of those two months, and was kicked out onto the streets with nothing more than a ‘good riddance’ on his eighteenth birthday. He’d bounced around on the streets, strangers beds, and his siblings couches, until Ben and Diego had managed to finally convince him to go into rehab when they were twenty-one. 

It took months of falling on and off the wagon, and the constant attention of his siblings, but eventually Klaus made it to two weeks sober, then two months, then a year. After a year had passed, he’d moved into an apartment with Ben, and started applying for jobs, for the first time in his life. Soul Cafe was the only place to call him back, and he’d been thriving there for eight months now. 

So, yeah. Of all the ways Klaus could have gone, death by sugar definitely wouldn’t be the worst way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave a comment if u love me. Kudos are always appreciated too!!


	2. iced smore's chai

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no beta, we die like lesbians

Klaus breezed into the cafe, sunglasses and headphones still on. He caught a group of middle aged ladies staring at him, and took off the sunglasses just so he could wink at them, before sliding in the staff door to the back. 

Charity, the kitchen manager, tapped at the side of her head, and Klaus sheepishly took his headphones off, music still blaring loudly.  
“How are you not deaf already?” Charity asked, and Klaus waved the comment off with his ‘hello’ hand.  
The disapproving look left her eyes, and she smiled warmly.  
“Hello to you, too, Klaus. I think you’re on till two tonight.”

Klaus hummed softly, shutting his music off, and going to count his till. Today had been an especially bad day for him. He had woken up with the deep, profound desire to just… not exist anymore. Not to die, but to just no longer be around. His mind had immediately started providing him with outs, telling him he didn’t matter enough to stick around anyway. If it had just been the bad thoughts and the craving for a hit of anything, Klaus could have coped. But there was also a chill to his room, and he eventually convinced himself that someone was watching him. 

After he couldn’t stand it any longer, Klaus had crawled in with Ben, who held his hand tightly and assured him there was no one in the apartment, and that Klaus was safe. Ben had such a smooth, reassuring tone, that Klaus let himself believe it. He was warm again. 

When Ben had to get up for work, Klaus begged him to bring him his phone and headphones before heading out. Ben had rolled his eyes, and called him a lazy asshole, but still complied. Klaus had laid in Ben’s bed for a few more hours, music blasting so loudly that he could barely hear his own thoughts, until he’d had to get up for his own evening shift. 

Just before clocking in, Klaus grabbed the cafes smartphone and changed the music. After a minute of deliberation, Klaus picked a random 80’s playlist and upped the volume a couple notches. Day shift generally stuck to a basic indies or jazz playlist at a quieter volume, but the closing shift could get away with much more thanks to the slightly different crowd the night drew in. 

“Klaus!” Ella called as soon as he’d put his till in the drawer. “Come help Adrian and I pick a new drink feature.”  
Klaus looked down at the two drinks in front of them and frowned. One was steaming hot, which Klaus was sure defeated the purpose of a summer drink feature.  
“Well, that one’s out for sure,” he said, pointing down at the hot mug.

Adrian huffed out a sigh. “It’s a white chocolate apple cider. Doesn’t exactly work iced,” he said.  
“It sounds delicious! Just save it for like… December,” Klaus told him, with a wave of his hand. “What’s the other one?”

It was an ugly purple tinged brown, and looked terrible. Klaus couldn’t wait to try it.  
“Berry breeze iced mocha,” Ella said, biting her lip.  
Klaus grabbed a compostable straw and stirred it a few times, before taking a generous sip. 

“Hm... “ Klaus swirled the cup around dramatically, then lifted it up to smell it. “While I am a fan, it’s pretty close to the raspberry mocha we had last month.”  
“That’s what I said!” Adrian said loudly. “No imagination in this one, I swear.”  
Ella laughed and swatted him off. 

“No, no, it’s still pretty good. I just think it couldn’t be the number one feature. Give me a few minutes to think of something,” Klaus said. When the other two raised their eyebrows at him, he added “it’ll be normal, I swear!”

By the time Ella had finished helping a couple elderly customers, Klaus had finished his masterpiece.  
“A pina colada italian soda,” he presented proudly. “Virgin, of course. Though I suppose it could be made alcoholic. I just won’t be able to test that one out.”  
“What’s in it?” Ella asked, pointedly ignoring how dejected Klaus suddenly looked.

“Oh! Yeah, three pumps pineapple, three pumps coconut, topped up with club soda, the tiniest splash of cream, and then plain whipped cream,” Klaus said, forgetting he’d been mildly upset just a moment before.  
Adrian eyed him suspiciously. “Cream in an italian soda?” He asked

“Oh, my dear angel, you haven’t tried it? You’re missing out on some heaven! Sip up!” Klaus said, gently pushing the drink towards Adrian. After Ella gave him an encouraging not, he took a sip, followed by another, and then another.

“See! I told you!” Klaus was stood beaming, practically vibrating.  
Adrian rolled his eyes, and passed the drink off to Ella to try, who seemed to enjoy it just as much. Klaus left them to enjoy his creation to take an order at the till. 

“Hi! What can I get for you?” He asked, before even fully dragging his eyes off of his coworkers.  
“Um. I’m not sure yet, sorry,” the man in front of him said.  
Klaus finally looked at the man properly, and was met with the most beautiful blue eyes he’d ever seen.  
“Oh,” Klaus said, softly.  
Oh?” The man repeated back, with a blinding smile. He was wearing beige trousers that he probably regretted due to the heat, and a light blue button up that matched his eyes. It was a mildly boring outfit that the man somehow seemed to make look catwalk worthy

Normally, on a day like today, if a customer didn’t know what they wanted, Klaus would smile, and tell them to call him over when they’d decided, and then go busy himself with cleaning up the espresso machine area, or tying up some tea bags. Staying busy and keeping moving was all that really got him through shifts on his bad day. Through life on his bad days, really. 

But this stranger was so beautiful that Klaus would be crazy to leave him unattended.  
“Yeah. Oh. Uh, what are you looking for? Have you been here before? I know our menu is huge, it’s a little overwhelming,” Klaus shot off.  
The stranger smiled softly, not even seeming to care that Klaus was staring at him so intently. 

“I’ve never been here before,” the man said.  
“I didn’t think so. I’d remember a face like yours,” Klaus said, unable to find any shame.  
The man stared at Klaus, his expression blank, for a beat, before dropping his head and laughing to himself softly. 

“Something iced, maybe, to cool down a hot man like yourself,” Klaus pushed, fully knowing he was going too far.  
But instead of looking uncomfortable or angry, the man just smiled again.  
“Iced sounds fantastic. I’m not really a huge coffee drinker, though,” the beautiful stranger said. 

“Neither am I!” Klaus replied. He was suddenly very aware of both Ella and Adrian staring at him from afar. “I know I work at a coffee shop and all, and I don’t not drink coffee, I just don’t drink it very often. And I only like it if it’s super sugary. I wasn’t allowed to drink anything even caffeinated as a child, so coffee was especially off the table.”

They were both silent for a moment after that. A young girl lined up right behind the man, who noticed her, and shuffled forward a step or two.  
“How about you make me something super sugary, then, coffee or no coffee,” the man said softly.  
Klaus nodded eagerly, and put in a basic iced coffee with a note that he’d make it to charge the man. “Three, forty, please.”

When he was high, Klaus had been interested in literally anyone who’d shown an interest in him. Being with someone usually meant he’d have a bed to sleep in for at least a night or two, so Klaus ended up giving himself to a lot of people. After he started to get sober, Klaus had an issue with thinking he was falling in love with anyone who was even remotely nice to him. 

His siblings had had to sit him down and talk to him about it, once it had become a real problem. ‘You need to focus on yourself, blah blah blah, sometimes nice people who don’t want to take you to bed just exist, blah blah blah, not everybody who smiles at you is worth your love and your time, blah blah blah.’ 

But Klaus had gotten the message, and they were right. It took a while, but he eventually began to spot the difference between real attraction to someone, and superficial infatuation. It still happened a lot, but now that he knew the difference, he could easily shrug the infatuation off. The real attraction rarely ever happened. Maybe three times in his entire life. And standing right in front of him, was the fourth. 

The man smiled, and God, Klaus kind of wished he’d stop doing so, and handed over a five. Adrian hopped over to take the little girls order on till one, and Klaus was sure he’d only done so so that he could eavesdrop better. 

“Can I, uh, get your name for the order,” Klaus asked hesitantly, all the confidence he’d had moments before flown out the window.  
Beside him, Adrian shot Klaus a pointed look. They weren’t the kind of cafe that asked for names. 

“Dave!” The man beamed. His eyes trailed down to Klaus’ apron, and he frowned for just a second, so quick Klaus almost missed it. He’d been looking for a name tag, something they didn’t wear. 

“Oh. Klaus! I’m Klaus,” he said quickly, never wanting to see Dave frown again.  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Klaus,” Dave said, putting all his change into the tip jar.

Klaus grinned, then practically bounced down to the espresso machine to make his drink.  
“Are you staying?” Klaus asked Dave, who shook his head almost sadly.  
“I’m on my way to my sisters,” Dave said.

Klaus grabbed a cold to go cup, and filled it with ice. He pumped it with three pumps of toasted marshmallow, his all-time favourite flavour, and one pump of chocolate, before filling the rest up with chai concentrate and milk.  
“Here you go, Dave! An iced smore's chai latte” Klaus said, with a smile, placing it on the counter. “I hope you don’t hate it. If you do, you can like, punch me or something. Complain to management, whatever.”

“Why would I do that?” Dave asked. “Your face is so pretty, I’d never want to mess it up.”  
And with that, Dave grabbed his drink, and practically flew out the door, leaving Klaus with his jaw on the ground.

“Wow, Hargreeves, that was a disaster. Funny to watch, though, so thanks for the entertainment,” Adrian said.  
“Don’t call me that,” Klaus said, shooting a glare at Adrian, which they both knew didn’t have any real annoyance or hatred behind it.

“He flirted back in the end, though,” Ella said. “I thought for sure it was one sided and that you’d scare him off, but he called you pretty.”  
“He was just joking, making conversation,” Klaus said, and his coworkers both rolled their eyes.

They thought it was pretty obvious Dave had flirted back in the end, but Klaus was too blinded by his own self-hatred to see it. Klaus was clearly a disaster of a person, something anyone with two functioning eyes could see. Actually, Klaus thought, you didn’t even need to see to be able to know that. There was no way that a beautiful man like that, one who was put together enough to wear a button up shirt, would be interested in him. Barely anybody had been seriously interested in Klaus since he’d gotten sober, and he didn’t blame anybody for that. There was no way that a seemingly normal person was going to be the exception.

Before Ella and Adrian could try to convince him any different, a steady stream of customers walked into the cafe, and it didn’t stop until it was time to close up the cafe and go home. 

Klaus took the long way, letting his playlist of his favourite The Doors songs play uninterrupted on shuffle, as loud as it would go. By the time he got home just past ten, Ben was waiting for him with a movie about to start, and dinner waiting for them both, being kept warm in the oven. 

When they were twenty, Ben had been in a pretty severe car crash that almost killed him. He’d been in a coma for a month, and by the time he’d been ready to be checked out a couple weeks after he’d woken up, Ben was a changed man. It wasn’t really noticable to anyone else, but it was to his siblings.

Growing up, Ben had always been a sweetheart, and had stayed mostly quiet. He’d kept to himself a good majority of the time, either reading or writing. The others respected that enough that Ben was comfortable enough to not isolate himself; instead he’d do his own thing, just in the same room as his siblings. He rarely spoke up when they argued, just left them to work out their stupid things on their own.

When they needed him, though, Ben was always there. That was one thing that didn’t change - Ben was there for his siblings, through thick and thin. He’d let Five crash in his res during uni when Five’s roommate kicked him out so he could have sex. He’d written articles about Luther’s gym free of charge so they’d get more business, and he’d rushed to the hospital every time either Klaus or Diego landed in emergency.

The main thing that changed, was that Ben became more forceful, more outspoken, and sure of himself. Like his brush with death had make him think ‘well, being quiet got me nowhere, time to fuck some shit up.’ It was his new attitude, paired with Diego’s, that finally got Klaus into rehab.

He still tried his best to give his siblings all his love and affection - case in point, having dinner and a movie ready for Klaus on his bad days. 

“Hey,” Ben said, with a soft smile, when Klaus threw the door open. His smile grew into a puzzled look, when Klaus looked happier than he had expected. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Ben, my dearest, bestest brother, I’ve fallen in love,” Klaus exclaimed, and with that, he dramatically collapsed onto the couch, his legs flinging over Ben’s lap.  
“Oh yeah?” Ben asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Yes. His name is Dave, he has a sister, he likes sugar, his eyes are blue, and we’re going to have a spring wedding.”

Ben just laughed, and shoved Klaus off of him so he could grab their plates of pasta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please comment or leave a kudos if you enjoyed this!!  
> feel free to check me out on tumblr, main is [lesbianpersephone](https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/lesbianpersephone), and my tua one is [umbrellalesbian](https://umbrellalesbian.tumblr.com/)


	3. fuzzy peaches italian soda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry if you clicked on this coffee shop au thinking it would be all cute and fun. i guess it'll still be cute, but it's ending up to be much darker than i originally imagined. hope ya'll are good with that

Klaus was totally in the zone, practicing latte art, when his coworker, Sarah called his name. He looked up, distracted by her, but forgot to stop pouring. The hot milk and espresso steeped over the edge of the mug, burning his fingers.  
“Sorry!” Sarah said, grabbing him a couple paper towels. 

Klaus just shrugged, and dried off. As baristas, they were all used to being totally unfazed by scalding liquids burning them.  
“What’s up, sweet thing?” Klaus asked.

“Is Luther single?” Sarah asked, so quietly that Klaus wasn’t sure he heard her right.  
“I’m sorry, did you just ask if my beef-man of a brother was single?” Klaus asked incredulously.  
“Yeah. Sorry, I guess that’s kinda weird,” Sarah said.

Everyone who worked at the cafe knew Klaus’ siblings. They were all pretty difficult people to miss in the first place, since they grew up in the public eye, and it didn’t help that most of them stood out just on their own anyway. It’s hard to forget a man who only wore black leather and had face scars, or a famous movie actress. 

“No, no, it’s fine,” Klaus said. “I mean, yeah, last time I checked, he was single. Nobody wants to date his steroid filled ass.”  
“Steroids?”  
“Okay, I don’t think he takes steroids, but he looks like it, huh?” Klaus laughed, lifting his arms as if to show off his muscles.

“Hm. You wouldn’t mind if I asked him out then?” Sarah asked.  
“Well. No, but I have no idea why you’d want to,” Klaus said.  
“Cool, because Adrian just took his tea order, and Luther just sat down by the fireplace. You mind if I take my break now?” Sarah said. 

Klaus blinked at her. “Uh. No, yeah, go ahead. It’s slow anyway.”

Sarah winked at him, took her apron off, and headed towards his brother. Klaus looked over to stare at Adrian, who wasn’t even attempting to hide his laughter.  
“It’s bad enough she’s going for a customer, but your brother? Man, that’s pretty bad,” Adrian said. 

“Right?! I guess it’d be good for Luther to get some, but I’d rather die than actually hear about it. I’m gonna ask Ella to start a ‘no talking about personal life ever’ rule.” Klaus said.  
“Oh please, I think you’d literally explode if that were a thing,” Adrian said. 

“Wait. What do you mean it’s bad enough she’s going for a customer?” Klaus asked.  
“I dunno. Don’t you think it’s kinda creepy?” Adrian said.

Klaus hadn’t thought it was until just now. He’d hit on plenty of customers, usually for better tips or just for fun to pass the time, but had never seriously wanted to pursue a customer until just now. Not that he’d really have the chance to pursue Dave, since he’d only been in once a couple days ago, and not again since. 

Speaking of Dave, Klaus hadn’t really stopped thinking about him since their short encounter. It had gotten to the point where only a day after they’d met, Ben had enforced a time limit on how long Klaus was allowed to talk about him. ‘You don’t even know him, it’s just the same ten things you’re telling me over and over again,’ Ben had complained.

The day had picked up, and Klaus found his flow on bar. He hand tamped shot after shot into their beautiful new portafilters, and beamed down at every shot that ran perfectly. He’d had to adjust the grind a couple times during the day when the shots ran too blonde, but he’d finally found the sweet spot. 

It was one of those days where Klaus accidentally made a dick with his latte art while trying for a rosetta, and those were always his best days. Ella encouraged him to swirl it with the end of the spoon so he wouldn’t present a business man with a dick latte, but Klaus never did. He got way too much joy out of seeing their faces. Honestly, he wished he could make them on purpose, but it never happened, no matter how hard he tried. 

Klaus was in the middle of topping up a hot chocolate with whipped cream when he heard a soft ‘hey’ in the voice he’d been dreaming of for days.  
Trying to keep his cool, Klaus placed the hot chocolate on the bar, calling it out, before looking over at Dave. 

“Hey! How’s it going, handsome?” Klaus asked, picking up the next bill, which called for three large americanos with room for cream to go. Adrian called out for him to put some soy milk on the bar with those. 

“I’m good. Busy today, but it looks like you are, too,” Dave said, as he took a step back, signalling that Klaus should work on the orders.  
“I can multitask!” Klaus said, while tamping the shots for the americanos. He filled two cups with hot water first, and ran the shots over top. While they were running and he got the third cup ready, he shot Dave a wide smile. “It’s the ADHD, very helpful for a job like mine.”

Dave laughed, louder than he needed to, especially considering Klaus hadn’t even told a joke.  
“My sister says the same. She works at McDonald’s and goes crazy when it’s slow,” Dave said.  
“Your sister and I have that in common,” Klaus said, before calling out the americanos and a drink tray. A businessman swiped them without even saying thank you.

“You’re welcome,” Klaus said under his breath, with an exaggerated roll of his eyes.  
Dave huffed another laugh and shot Klaus an apologetic look.  
“Ah, don’t worry, it’s part of the job. You know, being treated like a bit of a robot,” Klaus said, taking the soy milk back. 

He picked up the next bill, and just stared at it for a moment. It read:

Cold brew, no milk, to go  
NOT COLD BREW, WANTS U TO MAKE SOMETHING. ASK FOR HIS NUMBER

Klaus cleared his throat, and placed the bill out of view, where Dave couldn’t see it.  
“So, you uh, iced, again, today?” Klaus asked awkwardly. 

Dave’s hand reached up to scratch the back of his neck, and Klaus caught sight of the sliver of toned stomach that was revealed as his shirt lifted up. His face grew warm and he hoped it didn’t show.  
“Yeah, basically same idea as last time, just something new,” Dave said.

“You didn’t like it last time?” Klaus said with a pout.  
Dave stepped forward again, and leant his elbows on the counter.  
“I did! It was interesting, and it took a couple sips to get into it, but I really liked it in the end. I’d just like to try something new, see what other ideas you have,” Dave said.

“Oh. Yeah, I can do that. Easy peasy!” Klaus said. “Anything you don’t like? We have a banana syrup that’s fun, but some people have super strong feelings against it.”

Dave hummed for a moment, before telling Klaus anything but cherry flavour, and oat milk was okay. Klaus quickly made the next order, just an iced latte, so they wouldn’t be holding anyone up, and then set out to work.

He bit the inside of his cheek, and filled the go cup up with ice. Five pumps of peach syrup, one pump of lemon syrup, a few drops of real lemon juice, topped up with club soda, and Klaus proudly presented Dave with a fuzzy peaches italian soda. 

“Fuzzy peaches are my favourite candy,” Dave tells Klaus. He looks nearly as excited as Klaus does. 

Dave was wearing salmon coloured shorts today, that would have looked douche-y on anyone except for him, paired with a grey t-shirt, made interesting by the extreme V neck. It was interesting, the way he dressed. Like it had the potential to be basic, but was just pushed into the next level by small details, like matching his shirt to his eyes, or showing off his hairy upper chest.

Klaus wanted so badly to do what Adrian had told him to do in the note, but couldn’t stop thinking of their previous conversation, of how flirting with customers was creepy. 

“I’ll tell you what I think of this drink next time I see you,” Dave said, smiling at Klaus. They both seemed to do a lot of smiling at each other, but Klaus didn’t think he could stop, even if he wanted to.  
“Yeah, yeah, see ya!” Klaus said, waving his ‘goodbye’ hand at Dave.  
“Interesting tattoos,” Dave said, and just like that, he was gone out the door. 

Adrian bounced over, and stared at Klaus expectantly. When Klaus didn’t say anything, he let out a sigh.  
“Did you get his number, or not?” Adrian asked.  
“No! Didn’t you literally just tell me trying to get with customers was creepy?” Klaus said. He was tired, and just wanted to go home. He’d only been at work for two hours but it had been a long day. Most of the time, Klaus loved his job, but some days, he just wanted to be in bed. 

“Oh. Yeah,” Adrian said. “I did say that, but, like. It doesn’t count when the customer is super obviously into it.”  
“Dave isn’t into me,” Klaus said, before stalking off to the dishpit to catch up on their disaster area of dirty mugs and cheese covered plates. 

Dave was so beautiful, and Klaus had already memorized his face. Klaus could probably draw him in pretty good detail after just seeing his face twice. He wasn’t that bad of an artist, actually, but wasn’t good enough to ever do anything with the mild talent he had. Allison and Vanya had always told him that his artwork was beautiful, but Five told him straight up that it was too dark, and that he needed to lighten up, which obviously wasn’t happening any time soon.

Klaus wondered what Dave did for a living. Did he only have the one sister? Did she live a decent drive away, since Dave hadn’t bought his sister a drink, when he was heading to her place the other day. Five would have killed Klaus if he showed up at Five’s place with a coffee in hand, but not one for his brother. Was he as close with his sibling, or siblings, as Klaus was with his own. 

Ten minutes later, someone touched his shoulder, and Klaus practically jumped into the sink. He turned around, only to be greeted by the face of a concerned Sarah.  
“Christ on a cracker, Sarah, give a man a warning,” Klaus said, his voice strained.  
“Sorry, sorry, I called your name a couple times, but you didn’t hear me,” Sarah said.

“Oh,” was all Klaus said. He guessed he’d been really in his head.  
“Yeah. Sorry! I just wanted to tell you that I got Luther’s number! He was super sweet, turns out he’s had his eye on me, too,” Sarah said, her eyes shining.  
Klaus smiled and rubbed her arm.

“That’s awesome!” He said, genuinely happy for the two of them. “Did he already leave?”  
Sarah nodded and Klaus pouted.  
“Asshole didn’t want to say hello, let alone goodbye. Whatever, I get it. Text him that I’m mad at him,” Klaus said, but his voice didn’t hold any true bitterness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, comments are super appreciated!!


	4. iced butterbeer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who knew a coffee shop au could be so angsty

“Okay, hear me out,” Klaus was saying. “There’s an ‘elderly pedestrian crossing’ just up the road, but have you ever actually seen an elderly pedest.”  
Ella and Adrian both stared at Klaus. 

“I’m sorry, did you just say ‘elderly pedest?’ What is pedest?” Adrian finally asked.  
“You know, like pedest. I know it’s not a real thing, but I’m using the word, which makes it real. Like ‘hello, miss, may I help you pedest the road?’” Klaus said.

“Okay, so it’s like a verb, like walking or running, but specifically for crossing the road?” Ella said.  
“Yeah! Yeah, exactly!” Klaus laughed. “You got it, babe.”

“I’d love to see how the inside of your mind looks, Klaus,” Adrian said.  
“It’s colourful. Way too much fun for you, my dearest honeysuckle,” Klaus said with a wink. 

Adrian rolled his eyes and headed to the back, grabbing a full dishbin on his way. Klaus and Ella helped a few customers before it fell quiet again, and Klaus caught Ella staring at him.

“What? Are you still stuck on the pedesting thing?” Klaus asked when she didn’t let up.  
“That cute customer stopped by before your shift started. You know, the pretty boy,” Ella said. 

Klaus was silent, and immediately began to busy himself with scrubbing at the steam wand. He waited a full ten seconds before saying, as casually as he could muster “oh?”

Ella rolled her eyes and leant against the counter.  
“Yeah, oh. He asked about you. I know it’s against company policy and is just basic common sense not to tell literal strangers about our staffs schedules, but… I told him you’d be in later this evening,” she said.  
“Did he order anything?” Klaus asked.

“Yeah. A cinnamon bun, but no drink,” Ella said, and Klaus couldn’t help but feel like that was a little victory. Sure, Dave could have just been not thirsty or in specifically for a little snack, but Klaus thought, maybe, possibly, Dave just didn’t want anyone else making him a drink. He only wants Klaus to make him drinks. It’s probably a bit of a reach, Klaus decides, but he still likes the idea of it. Of being Dave’s sole barista.

“I’m his sole barista, at the Soul Cafe,” Klaus said out loud. Ella lets out a laugh and calls him a huge nerd before she gets distracted by movement at the till.  
“It’s for you,” she said, nodding her head over to the front counter.

Klaus turns, excitedly expecting Dave, but pouts when he sees it’s just Five. Five notices the pout, and drew his eyebrows together.  
“Nice to see you, too,” Five said.  
“Sorry, bro, I’m just waiting for my new favourite customer,” Klaus said, walking over to him.  
“And that’s not me?” Five asked.  
“I’m not that desperate. I have people in my life other than you fuckers,” Klaus said, but he turned to start Five’s order. They kept the drip coffee and teas right by the front counter. 

“Mhmm,” Five said, barely acknowledging the comment. “I need the usual, largest, freshest coffee you’ve got, black, to go.”

He says his whole order, as if Klaus doesn’t already have the drink half already made. Five was one of those customers who said ‘I need’ while ordering, instead of ‘I’d like’ or ‘can I please have.’ Even though Hargreeves hadn’t allowed even a drop of caffeine in his house, Five had still managed to become coffee addicted by the age of twelve. He really meant ‘need’ instead of ‘want.’

A small part of Klaus thought it wasn’t fair that Five was allowed to indulge in his addiction without the others staging an intervention for him, but a bigger part of Klaus knew that it wasn’t nearly the same thing. Coffee didn’t ruin anybody's life the way heroin did. 

Not that it was a competition, but Klaus always thought that Five had probably had the worst childhood of them all. Not their collective childhood, because that had all equally sucked, they agreed, but before. Before it Hargreeves Sucked.

He’d been born into a family who were convinced the apocalypse was bound to happen any day. The mom was paranoid constantly, and moved the kids into an underground bunker, and would leave them there for days with their dad who was, well, less than a pleasant person. When their neighbours finally saw the couple coming in and out of the bunker in their backyard, and heard children crying, they’d called the cops and Five and his biological siblings had been taken away. 

It was one of the weirdest cases the cops had seen - Five’s bio parents had been so convinced that the majority of the earth’s population was about to die, so they had tried to have as many kids as they could have. The plan was to procreate as much as they could, before the apocalypse happened, and then by the time it was safe to leave the bunker, they’d be older, and prepared to live in a post-apocalyptic world. Seriously, Klaus thought it was completely batshit.

They hadn’t even bothered to name the kids, they’d had so many. Instead, they numbered them. When he’d been put into the system when he was four, Five had refused to take any other name. He didn’t know where his bio siblings were, and he didn’t seem to care. The Hargreeves were enough for him, his first real family. 

Klaus supposed Five was allowed his coffee addiction. They all dealt with their own personal issues, and they all had their outlets. Some were healthy, like Vanya’s violin. Some weren’t the greatest, but didn’t really do too much harm, like Five with his coffee, and Diego with his boxing. And then there had been Klaus. God, he missed being high.

“Hey, Five,” Ella said, breaking Klaus out of the trance he’d been stuck in. “How’s it going?”  
“Fine enough,” Five said. “I’m working on trying to prove time travel is possible, hence the giant coffee.” Five tipped his full cup at the two of them as a salute, and walked out without saying goodbye.

“He was in a good mood today!” Klaus said.  
“Really? That was a good mood?” Ella asked. “I literally didn’t even get a read off of him.”  
“Oh, yeah. He’s super happy today, his research must be going well,” Klaus said.

Ella raised an eyebrow, but didn’t push it. It had been slow all week, and every day it got slower. Klaus had finally almost hit the point where he thought he was going to explode. It’d been a rough couple of days, starting out with a bad bout of depression keeping him in bed his entire day off, followed the next day by a hyper-fixation on ladybugs, and he’d ended up losing literally five hours to researching them and then hunting them down in the park nearby before he’d realized he was almost late for work.

And now, he’d been working for the past two days, and was ready to bounce off the walls. He’d tried to stick himself in the dishpit, since he could blast his own music pretty loud, but Ella had dragged him out when their actual dishwasher, their only high school employee, Blaine showed up. Klaus really liked Blaine, but steered clear of him. He was convinced that if he spent too much time with the kid, he’s surely somehow screw him up.

At nine pm, Ella suggested Klaus take his break. He goes to the back to hang up his apron, and gets cornered by Charity.  
“I fucked up a chicken wrap,” she said. “Put onions in when they asked for none. It’s in the office for you.”

The entire staff of Soul Cafe knew to never throw out food that was still edible, never ever. At least, not if Klaus was scheduled to be in in the next day or two, and even then, he’d encouraged them to save the day old muffins to give to the homeless that came in looking for water. 

He’d spent a good couple years of his life scavenging for food, going hungry for days, and relying on soup kitchens and the kindness of strangers to be fed. He never said no to a meal, and there literally wasn’t anything he wouldn’t eat. Not knowing when your next meal would be available makes fussy eaters change their attitude real fast. His food habits were something that he’d had a hard time trying to shake, and eventually, he’d just accepted that they’d probably never go away. Seeing a perfectly good sandwich thrown away when someone hungry could have eaten it would always make Klaus’ chest ache. 

“Danke,” Klaus said, kissing Cindy on the cheek as he walked past her. She swatted him away, but was still smiling. Klaus grabbed the wrap from the office, and his white chocolate matcha latte that had been sitting on the counter, and set up shop in the booth closest to the counter. The staff had designated it as their break spot, and were always salty when it was their break time and it was taken. They even had a reserved sign that they used for the booth occasionally. 

Klaus devoured the wrap in just over a couple of minutes, and pulled out his sketchbook. He flipped to the page he was currently working on. It was Ben entangled with a bunch of tentacles, something he’d seen in a dream. It might have been a nightmare, actually, now that he thinks about it. 

He’s in the last five minutes of his break, and is trying to figure out how to make the whole thing look more badass when a shadow looms over the sketchbook. Klaus looked up absentmindedly and does a minor double take when he seems Dave standing over him. 

“That’s sick,” Dave said, but Klaus immediately shut the book closed. His siblings were barely even allowed to see his art. Especially after Five had criticized it! 

Dave noticed the embarrassed look in Klaus’ eye and took a couple steps back, looking down sheepishly.  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry or anything, I just wanted to say hi,” Dave said.  
“No, no, it’s fine! I just don’t really let anyone see, I’m not very good,” Klaus said.

“I mean, I only got a seconds look, but I don’t think that’s true,” Dave said. Klaus was silent, just staring at the man.  
“Uh, anyway, I’ll leave you to enjoy your break,” Dave continued, starting to turn around.

“Wait!” Klaus called out, standing up. “I’m done in like a minute anyway, I can make your order, if you haven’t already gotten something, or…” he trailed off.  
“I’d love that, actually. I haven’t gotten my daily fix of sugar yet,” Dave said. 

Klaus bit his lip to keep from saying he knew that wasn’t true. After a beat, he picked up his stuff and disappeared into the back, before coming out again wearing his apron. Dave followed him on the other side of the counter to the till. Ella was nowhere to be seen, probably in the office. 

“Anything specific? What did you think of the fuzzy peaches drink?” Klaus asked.  
Dave beamed, and it took Klaus’ breath away for a moment. He felt his chest tighten up, and fought to catch his breath.  
“I loved it! It was fantastic! I think I even had a dream about it last night,” Dave said. “I’d love to try something new again, though.”

“Is this gonna be like… a thing?” Klaus asked. “Because for it to be a thing, you’re gonna have to come in more than once a week or I’ll completely forget you exist,” he lied.  
Dave huffed a laugh and nodded softly.  
“Okay,” he said.  
“Okay, what?”  
“Okay, I’ll come in more than once a week. But only if you can keep me on my toes with your creations,” Dave said.

They were both silent, staring into each other’s eyes for just a moment too long. Dave was the one who finally broke it, gaze flicking down to his hands, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.  
“Yeah, uh, same requirements, please. Something cold, or I think I’ll die in this heat,” Dave said softly. He handed Klaus the $3.40 and put the change in the tip jar, along with an extra two dollars.

“You’ll die?” Klaus said. “That’s a tad dramatic. And trust me, if I’m saying something is dramatic, that means it really truly is.”  
“You’re right,” Dave laughed. “Just haven’t quite been able to handle the heat as well since I got back from my tour.” 

Dave looked down again, sharply, as if he hadn’t meant to give so much detail.  
“You’re in the army?” Klaus asked, cocking his head to the side.  
Dave didn’t look like an army guy at first glance - his eyes were much too soft - but Klaus supposed he did have a strong build, and stood tall.  
“I was. Signed up right out of high school because they said they’d help my future and everything. I guess they did in the end, and I ended up getting my degree, but I’m still not sure it was worth it. It was… sorry, I’m oversharing,” Dave said. 

Klaus shook his head no a little too quickly.  
“It’s okay! I love oversharing! I overshare all the time, it’s actually been a bit of a recurring problem in my life. What did you study?” Klaus said.  
Dave shot Klaus an appreciative smile before answering.  
“English lit, and education. I’m an English teacher at the high school just down the road now,” Dave said. 

Klaus was about to say something, when a larger family walked in. Dave stepped back to let Klaus, who shot him an apologetic look, take their orders. Dave sat down at a table that gave him a perfect view of Klaus at the bar, and took the man in. 

Klaus was amazing when he was making drinks, Dave decided. He had such a flow, and was graceful about it, doing little spins as he turned around, as if he had to make everything more fun, even just pumping chocolate syrup into a pitcher. Dave noted that Klaus was working on all six drinks the family had ordered at the same time. 

He was letting the grinder run to pack shots, while two shots were already running into go cups. He was using one hand to hold a pitcher in the steam wand, and another to whisk some matcha with hot water, while still asking the mom how their day had been going.

It was so interesting to watch, that Dave almost forgot that he was creepily staring, until Klaus who was finishing up the last drink, looked up at him and shot Dave a look that he couldn’t quite read.

When the family was gone, Dave walked over to the counter, leaning on it.  
“You weren’t lying when you said you were good at multitasking, huh,” Dave said.  
“Honey, I’m what you could call a serial liar in recovery. I’ve never lied about stuff I’m good at though,” Klaus said with a laugh. “There’s not much I’m good at, so I have to flaunt it.”

Dave hummed in thought, like he was trying to decide what part of what Klaus had said to focus on before the other man beat him to the punch.  
“Do you think you’re ready to try some coffee, or still wanna steer clear?” Klaus asked.  
“You have full, total, creative control here, Klaus,” Dave said. “I trust you.”

Klaus blinked, tilting his head, and stared at Dave so intensely that the other man thought he might catch on fire.  
“You trust me?” Klaus said, after what felt like an eternity.  
“Yes?” Dave said.

Klaus opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind. Instead, he just grabbed a cold cup and turned to fill it up with ice. Dave watched as Klaus hand tamped a shot, noticing how his hands were shaking slightly. He didn’t say anything about it, though.

Klaus pumped syrup into the cup from three different bottles, and filled most of it up with milk before running a single shot over top. He topped it up with milk, and then whipped cream and caramel drizzle, and plopped it down in front of Dave without saying a word. 

When Klaus still didn’t say anything, Dave asked what it was.  
“Iced butterbeer latte,” Klaus said. “One of our sweetest drinks, for my sweetest customer.”  
Dave’s face flushed red, but he turned so quickly that Klaus was sure he imagined it.  
“Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Dave said, grabbing a straw.

Klaus just nodded, and waved his goodbye hand with a small smile. 

That night when Klaus gets home, Ben has lasagna waiting for them both in the oven.  
“You know you can eat without me, right? It’s too late,” Klaus said, as he took off his shoes.  
“Doesn’t feel right,” was all Ben said, who got up to dish them a plate each. “How was work?”  
“I’m still in love, but I also think I’m gonna be sick, and can never talk to him ever again,” Klaus said, going to sit on the kitchen table. Ben shooed him off with a frown, and Klaus dejectedly slid into a chair.

“Okay, what did he do?” Ben asked, setting a plate down in front of Klaus.  
“He said he trusted me.”

Ben narrowed his eyes at Klaus.  
“Isn’t that a good thing, you idiot,” Ben said.  
“Like. I guess in theory! But you barely even trust me, and Dave doesn’t even know me, so I’m only going to let him down,” Klaus said. He stabbed his fork into his dinner with much more force than was needed. 

“I trust you,” was all Ben said. He knew trying to talk to Klaus about other people seeing good in him would be a lost cause for the time being. He’d try later, when Klaus was calmer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for anyone who doesn't know, a hyper-fixation is an adhd thing!  
> i know the five thing is kinda out of place, but humor me!!
> 
> any kind of comment is always appreciated if you enjoyed this!!


	5. piña colada italian soda

Klaus had been staring at his ceiling for the last hour when he was disturbed by a loud knocking on his bedroom door. He grumbled something unintelligible and rolled over to shove his face into his pillow. A moment later, Ben was pushing his way into Klaus’ room, and sitting on the corner of his bed. Living on the streets had made it practically impossible for Klaus to sleep in past seven in the morning, and they both knew that. It made it harder to explain staying in bed til the evening, so Klaus had given up on telling Ben that he’d just slept in after a while. Every now and then, Ben let Klaus indulge in it, but that was rare.

“Klaus. It’s three in the afternoon, you have to get up,” Ben said. His voice was soft, but still forceful.  
“Can’t,” Klaus mumbled.  
Ben laid down beside him, waiting patiently until Klaus eventually gave in and turned so they were facing each other. 

“You can. You work at five, get up, take a bath, go to work, and you’ll be okay for today,” Ben said. “It’ll be over before you even know it, and then you can get back in bed. I’ll even wash your sheets and make your bed for you if you get your depressing ass out of bed in the next ten minutes.”

Klaus squinted his eyes like he was thinking about it, before shaking his head.  
“Nope. No can do, Benny. I was thinking I’d call in sick to work.” Klaus said.  
“What about Dave? Didn’t you tell me he said he’d come in today?” Ben asked.  
“Don’t you dare bring Dave into this, arschloch. There’s only a two percent chance he even likes me, and even if he did, seeing me more often is only gonna make that chance go away. I was an idiot telling him to come in more often,” Klaus said. 

“You’re not an idiot, you just have a crush. A normal, healthy crush, your first in… maybe ever,” Ben said.  
“Yeah, well. It doesn’t matter, because this isn’t about Dave. This is about me, and I can’t get out of bed,” Klaus said, huffing a sigh, and rolling over to shove his head into his pillow again.

After a moment of silence, Klaus spoke up again, his voice muffled from the pillow.  
“I feel like there’s this weight over me, and if I try to sit up, it’ll crush me. I’m so tired, Ben. Everything is too much, and I just want a hit of anything, I want to be numb,” he said.

Ben bit his lip, and stared at Klaus’ curls, debating whether or not he should just try and pull his brother up. He knew that would probably just induce a full breakdown on Klaus’ part, though.  
“I’m gonna call Allison,” Ben said, making a move to get up.

Klaus whipped up, forcefully grabbing Ben’s wrist.  
“You will not,” he hissed.  
“I will. You know she’ll convince you to be up before you even know what’s happening,” Ben said. 

Allison was a master with her words. She’d been the most manipulative child in history while growing up, but had matured with age, and rarely used her talent for ‘evil’ anymore, as Klaus would put it. There was just something about the way she phrased her words, and the soft, melodic voice she’d use, that would have even her worst enemies listening to her, doing what she’d tell them to, as if it was their own idea. 

“Ben, she’s gonna be so disappointed in me, and she’s gonna be pissed off at you for dragging her into this,” Klaus said, desperate.  
“Then get up, and Allison won’t have to be pissed off or disappointed at anyone,” Ben said. “Look, you’re already sitting up, and you weren’t crushed. You’re okay.”

Klaus looked down at himself with a puzzled look on his face, as if he hadn’t even noticed that he wasn’t lying down anymore.  
“Ugh. I hate you,” Klaus said eventually, but he didn’t lay back down.  
“Do you want me to run you a bath?” Ben asked.

Klaus shook his head.  
“I don’t have time,” Klaus said, knowing full well two hours wasn’t nearly enough time. He liked to spend at least three hours minimum in his baths, otherwise they weren’t worth it.  
“Okay. I’ll make some food,” Ben said, getting up.  
“Waffles?” Klaus called out, just as Ben slid out his bedroom door. 

With a full stomach, Klaus walked into work with just enough time to count his till. He was wearing a black top that sparkled bright pink in the light, with hot pink pants. He’d lined his eyes with kohl eyeliner, and smudged dark purple shimmery eyeshadow on his lids. Dressing up always put Klaus in a better mood, and Ben had convinced him that today was a good a day as any to wear the new pants he’d found last time they’d gone thrift shopping.

All in all, Klaus was feeling 100 times better, and even found it in himself to smile at Sarah on his way to the back. After counting his till, Klaus still had a little bit of time, so he got himself a glass of ice water and sat in the break booth. 

He sat there people watching, sipping on his water. The cafe brought in a lot of interesting people. Despite it being relatively slow during the summer time evening shift, they were still situated on one of the busiest, trendiest streets in the city. It brought in a lot of foot traffic, and different individuals.

There was a mom who had one of the tiredest looks in her eyes Klaus had ever seen. One of her four children, the youngest, tugged on her shirt until she picked him up and placed him on the counter while she ordered. A couple of teenagers in the corner were clearly on a first date. There were awkward laughs, and lingering looks, and moments of silence. A girl Klaus’ age with both her arms filled with tattoos caught his eye, and he looked her up and down. She caught him looking and winked, and he grinned back. After their brief interaction, they both looked away. 

Just as he was about to get up to clock in, a forest green shirt drew his attention, and Klaus’ gaze fell on Dave, who had just walked in the door. Dave didn’t see him, and walked straight to the counter. He looked around behind the counter, and leant forward as if to look into the back for someone to serve him, despite Sarah standing right by the espresso machine. Dave turned his head so Klaus could just see his face, and Klaus could have sworn he saw a look of disappointment flash across Dave’s face, before he turned to smile at Sarah. 

Klaus watched Dave from the side, a moment longer, before getting up and sneaking into the back to grab his apron. He took a deep breath and grabbed a bin full of clean plates, and carried it to the front. Placing the bin on a back counter, Klaus grabbed a couple of mugs to place on top of the espresso machine, and turned, his eyes landing, again, on Dave, who was staring at him, with a faint smile painted across his lips.

“Oh! Hey! How’s it going, today?” Klaus said, feigning surprise at seeing Dave in front of him.  
Dave’s face broke out in one of the biggest grins Klaus had ever seen, rosy lips framing his perfect teeth, and suddenly the cloud of depression that had hung over Klaus all day lifted away. 

Klaus wasn’t stupid, he’d gone to the therapy sessions Hargreeves had forced him into, and he’d actually listened to Vanya, who was, by far, the one who was best at dealing with her own problems out of the seven of them. He knew that no one could magically fix him, or cure him. Despite how much he sometimes wished, that wasn’t how it worked. That didn’t mean that there weren’t certain people who helped improve his mood, or people who made Klaus want to actually put in the work to get better. 

Ben was one of those people. There were some days where Klaus was beyond help, beyond listening to reason, but majority of the time, Klaus got out of bed so that Ben wouldn’t be disappointed in him. He kept going for Ben, and he kept going for the rest of his siblings. 

For Luther, who despite being a bit of an asshole growing up, only wanted Klaus to be his best self. For Diego, who had always shown up at the hospital when Klaus went too far, or at the police station to pick him up, no matter how late it had been. For Allison, who never said anything when her favourite dresses disappeared from her closet, and who painted Klaus’ nails when his hands were shaking too much to do them himself. 

For Five, who had practically invented the term ‘tough love’ and housed Klaus the couple of times he had tried to go sober and gone through withdrawal, before rehab. For Ben, who looked after Klaus better than he looked after himself. And for Vanya, who always held him while he cried, and upon his request, would make him a cup of tea, and play her violin for him until he calmed down. 

In that moment, when Dave smiled, Klaus knew he wanted to make an effort to be his best self for Dave, too. The thought terrified Klaus, but it made him feel at peace at the same time. Like everything was falling into place, and as cheesy as it sounded, the world was just that little much brighter. Warmer. And yet, Dave was still just a customer, who thought of Klaus as nothing more than his regular barista. The thought made Klaus’ chest twist and ache. He thought he might be sick. 

“I was having a bit of a rough day, but it’s better now. I’m happy to see you,” Dave said. Sarah shot Klaus a curious look from the side, before shrugging it off and walking to the back.  
The implication that Dave’s day got better at just seeing Klaus completely went over the man’s head, and Klaus just frowned, tilting his head.

“Rough day? Why?” Klaus asked.  
Dave sighed, and lifted his left arm to rub the back of his neck. Klaus tried his best not to stare at his bicep, but was sure he failed.  
“Just spent a large portion of my afternoon arguing with one of my students. She’s so smart, but refuses to put in the effort, and goes on the defensive when I try and talk to her, and… I sound like a typical teacher right now, huh?” Dave said with a sheepish smile. 

“Yeah, tiniest bit,” Klaus said. “Reminds me of one of my tutors. She was always mad that I spent half my time trying to purposely distract my siblings. You would have absolutely hated me in high school.”  
“Nah, I was a troublemaker when I was younger, too. Tutor, huh? Like extra help?” Dave said.

“No, like full time tutor. I was homeschooled,” Klaus said.  
“Really?” Dave asked, full of surprise.  
“Yes,” Klaus laughed. “Why is that so hard to believe?”  
“Dunno, you just don’t strike me as the type of person who was homeschooled. I’m not sure exactly… what I picture as someone who was, but I know you’re not it,” Dave said. “You have too much of that ‘school class clown turned bad boy’ with a side of drama kid vibe going on.

“That basically covers the whole spectrum, huh. Either you’ve got too good a read on me, or you really have no clue and just put everything together,” Klaus said, and Dave laughed. “No, my father wanted to give us the best education ever, or some shit like that, and instead of being a normal rich parent and sending us to private school, he hired private tutors for all of us.”

“All of you?”  
“Yes, sir. Seven tutors for seven kids,” Klaus said with an exaggerated nod.  
“Seven kids? Christ, I can’t even imagine,” Dave said.  
“Makes sense as to why I’m so colourful, huh?” Klaus joked. “Grew up having to fight for attention. Sorry, did you order already?”

“Oh, uh, no. Not yet, was just talking to your coworker when you came out,” Dave said.  
Klaus tried his best not to let his disappointment flash across his face - so Dave just talked to everyone. He wasn’t special. Without even a word from both of them about the matter, Dave handed over a five, and after Klaus gave him his change, Dave threw the rest of it in the tip jar.

Klaus uttered a soft ‘thank you,’ and they wandered down the counter to the espresso machine. Klaus grabbed a go cup, and turned to stare at their selection of syrups, contemplating his options.  
“I really liked the butterbeer latte,” Dave piped up from behind him.  
“Yeah?” Klaus said, looking over his shoulder at Dave. 

Dave nodded enthusiastically, and leant against the counter. It was funny the way he did that. Dave had extremely good posture, and always stood up straight. But when given the opportunity, he always leant over the counter, as if he was trying to get closer to Klaus. 

Deciding on the drink, Klaus made idle conversation as he prepped it.  
“You know, you always manage to come in when it’s dead. As soon as you leave, it’s steady enough that I can barely get the closing list done,” Klaus said. He filled the cup with three pumps and coconut, and three of pineapple.  
“Maybe they all just know I want to be able to talk to you,” Dave said. His voice was slightly quieter than usual.

Klaus who had been reaching into one of the fridges for club soda, froze like a deer in headlights for a moment. His back was still turned to Dave, and he was grateful that Dave couldn’t see how wide his eyes were. After just a beat, Klaus continued as if his entire world hadn’t just been shaken. 

“You want to talk to me?” Klaus said, mildly confused.  
“Well, yeah. I think you’re really cool,” Dave said nonchalantly.  
Klaus stared at Dave, who stared back with such an intensity that Klaus couldn’t stand it any longer. He walked away suddenly to fill the rest of the cup up with ice, and grabbed the whipped cream. 

Dave thought he was cool. Him! Klaus Hargreeves, cool! Dave, the coolest person Klaus had ever met, thought he was cool. 

“Do you have any tattoos?” Klaus asked.  
Dave blinked in surprise at the seemingly random question.  
“I have one, on my shoulder. I got it with a few other brothers during my tour,” Dave said, lifting up his short sleeve to put it on display. Again, Klaus had to stop himself from creepily staring. 

It was strange, the effect Dave had on him. Klaus had never been shy, and had never really cared if people thought he was strange, or annoying. People liked Klaus, mostly just for the night, and if they didn’t, that didn’t really matter to him. But Dave made him shy, something Klaus had never really experienced. He felt like a small child with their first crush. And okay, maybe Dave was his first real crush, but he wasn’t that small child, he was a grown man. Despite knowing it was ridiculous, Klaus still couldn’t snap out of it. 

He kind of liked how he was around Dave, though. Of course, Klaus was Klaus, he wasn’t out there on the daily pretending to be someone he wasn’t. At his core, Klaus was eccentric, outspoken, humourous, and extroverted. But he did put on an extra show for everyone except his siblings, making everything extra exaggerated and loud and pushing limits more than usual. Around Dave, that all fell away. Despite the strange shyness, Klaus found himself feeling comfortable enough to drop the act.

“I like it!” Klaus said, placing the drink in front of Dave. “Piña colada Italian soda! It’s our summer drink feature, a special creation made by moi. Virgin, of course. Tragically.” Despite feeling a bit better, Klaus was still too tired to come up with anything new and exciting.  
“I rarely drink anyway,” Dave said. “Bad experiences.” He grabbed a straw, and stirred the whipped cream in a little before taking a sip.

Klaus almost swooned at the idea of Dave being basically sober. He’d be a liar if he said one of his (many) biggest fears in finding a partner would be that they would drink too much around him. Klaus wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to fight the temptation. 

“Again, you killed it,” Dave said, lifting up the drink.  
Klaus grinned, but they were interrupted by a couple walking in. Dave noticed Klaus’ attention waver, and shot Klaus a soft smile.  
“I’ll let you work. See you soon, Klaus,” Dave said.

He always said Klaus’ name so softly, almost like it was a secret. It made him weak in the knees. Everything Dave did made him weak in the knees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i say 'dave smiled' or 'klaus grinned' so many god damn times, but it's because these two fools just make each other smile sooo much.
> 
> don't forget to comment and/or leave kudos!! thank u so much for reading and sticking it out. feel free to hit up my tumblr umbrellalesbian


	6. lavender dirty chai

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter didn't come as easily as the others and i'm not very happy with it, but i hope you all like it! we're at chapter six and i'm starting to think i should tag this as 'slow burn' lmao

It was nearing the end of Klaus’ shift, and Dave hadn’t shown up yet, but that was okay. Most of the day had been crazy busy, and there had been hoards of customers non-stop since Klaus had showed up. The crowds had began to thin by ten pm, but by then, the closing staff were left with an hour to not only finish their closing list, but also catch up on stuff the day shift hadn’t had time for.

Klaus was cleaning and stocking the condiment unit when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around with a hum, to be met face to face with an older, tired looking man.  
“Zee! Hey, my man!” Klaus said, warmly giving the man a hug, before heading behind the counter. The man followed him on the other side and they met again by the espresso machine. "How are you?"

“Thanks for asking, I’m not doing well, Klaus,” Zee said, as Klaus placed a large go cup of hot water in front of the man.  
“I’m sorry to hear that, man. Did you check out that shelter I told you about?” Klaus said. He walked down a little bit to bag a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies.  
“Thank you, God bless you, thank you,” Zee said, accepting the cookies. “I went there last night, I couldn’t sleep because I thought someone was going to steal my shoes, but they had a bed for me.”  
“That’s great! Are you gonna go there again tonight? Even if you couldn’t sleep, you look way better. In fact, I’d say you look handsome today!” Klaus said, busing himself with cleaning the area, so that Ella wouldn’t come out and scold him. 

“Yeah, yeah, maybe. Thank you, man, I’ll see ya,” Zee said, taking his water and cookies and heading out.  
“No worries, Zee,” Klaus yelled after him. He went to add ‘don’t be stupid, go to the shelter again’ but jammed up when he saw Dave standing near the front counter, looking at him curiously. 

“Hey!” Dave said, upon realizing he’d been noticed.  
“What’s up, Davey? Isn’t it a bit late for you?” Klaus said, meeting Dave at the tills. 

Klaus could have sworn Dave blushed, but it was too dark to be able to know for sure.  
“To be out and about, it’s a bit late! I put off grading a certain paper that I promised my students I’d have the grades for tomorrow, though, so I’m in desperate need of sugar and caffeine,” Dave said, holding up a briefcase full of what Klaus could only assume were the papers, as if to prove it. 

“Why’d you put it off?” Klaus asked, motioning to the briefcase.  
“Uh, the book I assigned them, Giovanni’s room, follows a man discovering his sexuality in Paris in the 50’s. Just a little nervous to hear what my students have to say about it, you know?” Dave said. The man looked Klaus directly in the eye then, almost as if he was challenging Klaus. It wasn’t rude or a look of fear, but more like he was just asking Klaus to really think about what he’d said.

Dave had gone out of his way to assign an LGBT book to his high school students, something that he’d probably had to check with their principle, and was nervous to read the essays. Was this Dave coming out to him? It was totally Dave coming out to him!

After a long moment of silence, Klaus finally spoke up. As soon as he did, relief seemed to flood into Dave’s eyes.  
“You know, I wish I’d discovered my sexuality in Paris, instead of here. That would have been so much sexier of me!” Klaus said. “I’d stand against a pillar or something with a cigarette in my hand, eyeing down the pretty Parisian boys who’d walk by, and think about the strange awakening I’d be feeling.”

Klaus leant against the back counter, and held his hands up with a phantom cigarette, taking an imaginary puff. After his act, he looked at Dave, raising an eyebrow.  
“Yeah, way sexier,” Klaus nodded.

“I’m, uh, sure however you did it was sexy already, Klaus,” Dave said so softly that Klaus almost thought he’d imagined Dave saying it. But he didn’t, and Klaus decided it was time to push it.  
“Yeah, it was pretty sexy, to be honest. Steaming hot, like everything I do. Not as hot as you, though,” Klaus said, practically forcing himself to make eye contact with Dave.

Dave broke it immediately, looking at his feet like they were on fire. The deep pink of a blush was unmistakable this time, tinging his cheekbones and the tips of his ears. Klaus thought back to Adrian saying hitting on customers was creepy for a moment, but the thought flew out of his mind when Dave looked back up at him again. 

His face was still warm, and his eyes matched. Dave always looked at Klaus with kindness, but his eyes were so soft, so warm, that Klaus thought he might have died on the spot. He wore a lopsided grin, and Klaus got distracted thinking about what it would be like to kiss Dave. Would it be as warm and lovely as Dave looked right now?

“I’d think you were hitting on me, if I didn’t know you flirt with all your customers,” Dave said, with a slight laugh.  
Klaus’ jaw practically hit the ground.  
“What?” he said.

“Yeah, you’re always super friendly with everyone you serve, and you called that man handsome just before,” Dave said.  
“Zee?" Klaus asked, confused. “He looked like he’d shaved! I was happy for him!”

Dave stared at Klaus, just as equally confused. Klaus was flabbergasted. He had outright told Dave he was into men, and then called him hot, and Dave had somehow turned that into Klaus just being nice. It was fucking ridiculous. Yes, Klaus was naturally a very casually flirty person, but he had thought that was as obvious as it could get. And yet! It had flown right over Dave’s head as something serious.

Neither spoke, just stared at each other for a long moment, before Ella came out from where she’d been cleaning the bathrooms. She stopped just short of Klaus, and looked between the two of them. 

“Is everything okay?” she asked finally, her question aimed at Dave.  
“Yep! Everything’s fine, Ella,” Klaus answered.  
Dave nodded slightly, and Ella shrugged. She checked off ‘bathrooms’ on the checklist, and made a show of tapping the whole list for Klaus’ benefit before walking off.

“Uh. Sorry, did you want to order?” Klaus said when she was gone.  
“Please,” Dave said.

They finished the transaction, and Klaus went to grab a to go cup.  
“Actually, uh, can I stay?” Dave said, as if Klaus was allowed to say no.  
“Oh! Yeah, of course,” Klaus said. Dave had a weirdly relieved look on his face, as if he had been half expecting Klaus to tell him he had to leave. “Anything else you wanna shake up on me?”

Dave shook his head, and Klaus smiled softly, before setting to work. Klaus did his best to ignore - or at least appear like he was ignoring - how Dave leant up on the counter, watching him intensely. Dave’s eyes were trained of Klaus’ hands.

Klaus tamped a double shot, and ran it into a small, clean pitcher. While it ran, he filled a blender with lavender syrup, chai concentrate, lactaid milk, and vanilla powder. He poured the shot in, followed by ice, and blended until smooth. After pouring the drink into the largest stay cup they had, Klaus topped it up with vanilla whipped cream.

“Lavender dirty chai frappe!” Klaus announced loudly, pulling Dave out of his trance. “You have the sugar in the syrup and it’s a truckload of caffeine.”  
“Sounds awesome,” Dave said, grabbing a compostable straw and taking a sip. “Tastes awesome, too. Thank you.”  
“Anything for you,” Klaus said, and turned to clean up the blender before Dave could see him blush.

When he turned back around, Dave was gone from the counter, but he hadn’t gone far. Instead of sitting by the fireplace, the prime seating arrangement that was, by some miracle, empty, Dave had opted for the table closest to the counter, where Dave had a perfect view of Klaus.

Klaus watched Dave as he opened his briefcase, and took out a stack of papers, spreading them out on the table. When everything was put into place, Dave looked up and smiled at Klaus. Klaus smiled back, embarrassed to be caught staring, before busying himself with the closing list. 

He only had two more customers after Dave, so he got through it all pretty quickly. Ella took out the garbage and recycling, leaving Klaus to do everything for the front area. He stocked the fridges with all the milks and alternative milks, refilled the espresso hoppers, restocked the baked display, counted his till so that Ella was the only one left who could take orders, and swept behind the counter.

Every few minutes, Klaus was sure he could feel Dave staring at him, but he tried his best to never check. It was most likely his imagination - Dave was too busy grading papers to care about his boring work stuff. 

When most things behind the counter were done, Klaus grabbed the broom headed to the lobby. He and Charity had done rock paper scissors to decide who had to close the dishpit, and who had to sweep and mop the lobby for the night. Ella was in charge of the shift, so she was dealing with the money and manager duties of the close. Normally, Klaus would have been a little bitter he hadn’t landed on dishpit. He liked being able to play his music and the fact that it was disgusting didn’t phase him. After sleeping in a dumpster that one time, nothing gross every really got to him. Tonight, though, he was grateful.

He ignored Dave for the most part, starting at the far end of the cafe, letting him work. A few customers trailed in, whom Ella helped, but not enough that she needed Klaus to help. Eventually, Klaus was let with nowhere to sweep but the small area where Dave was sitting.

At the sight of movement, Dave looked up from his papers, and smiled blindingly at Klaus. Klaus, in return, stopped and bent over to rest his chin on the top of the broom, eyeing the papers. They were separated into two piles, the pile with grades scribbled on the top much smaller than the other. 

“I know,” Dave said, looking down and sighing. “I sent out an email letting them know they’d have to wait an extra day.”  
“Did you have to be as nervous as you were?” Klaus asked.  
“Not at all. Turns out my students are all pretty decent people. Who knew?” Dave said with a slight laugh, but it didn’t sound like his other laughs. Not quite as real.

And Klaus knew that exact fake laugh quite well. It’s one you come quite accustomed to giving when you’re brushing off something as an LGBT+ person. Klaus had had his fair share of homophobia. He’d dealt with having to come out to not just one, but six siblings, scared that this would be what would finally make them turn on him. It had only been Luther who’d needed some time to come around, but that had hurt just as much as if it were all of them. 

Hargreeves had refused to acknowledge the fact that Klaus was pansexual and non-binary, but he refused to acknowledge basically anything about all, so that didn’t hurt as much. He’d dealt with his tutors giving him disapproving looks, even going so far as to suggest Hargreeves give them a uniform so Klaus would stop wearing Allison’s skirts to their sessions. They did end up with those uniforms, but that didn’t stop him. He’d swapped all his trousers with Diego’s skirts. His brother had come out as trans around the same time Klaus had come out, and it worked in their favour, at least for that aspect. 

Despite being pansexual, Klaus presented as a very flamboyantly gay man, and living on the streets proved to be dangerous for him for a few more reasons that the obvious. He’d had the living shit kicked out of him in alleyways because he’d looked at someone the wrong way, and had been beaten around in bed because men had finally ‘come to their senses’ and realized Klaus had ‘tricked them into taking him home.’ He’d had people refuse to give him a light or bus change, throwing slurs at him instead, and he’d even dealt with the nurse who he’d overheard tell her coworkers that she didn’t want to help give him stitches because she didn’t agree with his ‘lifestyle,’ as if having sex with men was the worst part about the way he lived his life. 

Klaus knew the ‘it’s fine! Really! I swear!’ laugh very well, but hearing it come from Dave’s lips hurt. He could tell Dave had been expecting to read that some of his students thought he was scum, and was so thankful that hadn’t been the case. Klaus didn’t know what he’d do if Dave had been hurt like that.

“It doesn’t really matter that much, they don’t know I’m gay, and never will,” Dave said. “It’s just nice to know now that if they did find out, it would be okay.”  
“I get it, trust me,” Klaus said. He resumed sweeping the area, casually enough that he could still hold a conversation.

“I, uh, I think I’m gonna have to be back here tomorrow night,” Dave said, gesturing to the thick pile.  
“I’ll be here!” Klaus said.  
“Yeah?” Dave said. His eyes shone with something Klaus couldn’t quite place.  
“Yeah! I’ll be waiting for you. Come earlier this time so maybe you’ll get them all done,” Klaus said.

Dave looked down at the table, yet another blush tinging the tips of his ears. Ella called out that Soul Cafe was closing in five minutes, making both Dave and Klaus jump slightly.  
“I should get going,” Dave said, already gathering his belongings.  
“Okay!” Klaus said, propping up the broom so he could grab Dave’s empty cup and take it to the dishbin nearby. Dave shot him an appreciative look.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Klaus,” Dave said, but he didn’t make a move to actually leave.  
Klaus took a few steps forward, and he was close enough that if he wanted to kiss Dave (which he did), he’d only need to take another step or two. The two men looked at each other for a long moment, both as if they had something to say but couldn’t quite find the words. Klaus could have sworn Dave’s eyes darted to his lips for an imaginary moment. 

After what felt like an eternity, Dave took a sharp breath in, and nodded once. He turned around and headed towards the door, looking back over his shoulder once to see Klaus standing still in the same position. 

While doing the after close tasks, Klaus blasted music as loud as it would go so that Ella wouldn’t be able to ask him what the fuck that was all about. Part of it was that Klaus didn’t want to talk about it, it had felt too private, almost. But another part was that Klaus himself didn’t know what the fuck that was, and trying to work it out felt too difficult.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> same as always, please comment or leave a kudos to let me know what's up! i was also thinking about trying to update my other tua fic if any of ya'll are interested in that one!


	7. soft and sweet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> while yes this chapter, like every chapter, primarily revolves around klaus and his feelings for dave, this is a sibling relationship heavy chapter!! we stan healthy sibling relationships in this house!

The next morning, when Klaus woke up, he felt lighter than he had in a long time. He was even out of bed early enough to make tea for Ben while his brother was in the shower. It used to be a tradition of theirs when they were children. 

Ben was a morning showerer, and Klaus would always have tea - non-caffeinated, of course - ready for them both by the time Ben was dry. That, like most of their little traditions, had flown out the window when Klaus’ life had made a turn for the worse. After moving in together again, both Klaus and Ben swore to themselves, without telling the other, that they’d try their best to pick some of them up again, even if it wasn’t a regular thing.

They sat on their ratty old couch together, quietly watching a rerun of a Spongebob episode. Klaus was curled up into himself, holding the mug so close to his face that it was basically giving him a steam facial, not paying attention to the episode. The silence didn’t last long until Ben huffed out a sigh and turned to face Klaus.

“Don’t you have anything to say?” Ben said.  
Klaus looked between his mug, to the tv, to Ben, and to the mug again, a frown adorning his face.  
“I’m sorry?” Klaus said, eyes darting back to Ben.  
“You’re silent. It’s weird,” Ben said.

“I’m allowed to be in my thoughts and have private discussions in my head, asshole,” Klaus said humorously.  
“Yeah, you’re allowed to. You’re just not capable of doing so,” Ben said.  
Klaus gasped, dramatically reaching to throw a hand over his own heart, almost spilling his tea all over himself in the process. 

“Brother! You wound me!” Klaus practically yelled.  
Ben just rolled his eyes, and leant back against the couch, patiently waiting for Klaus to crack.  
“Okay, I want to talk but I was thinking I’d save it for lunch,” Klaus said after barely ten seconds.  
“Oh, fuck, I almost forgot,” Ben said. “Whatever you want, dude. Be creepy and quiet, I don’t care.”

The two of them had made plans to meet Allison and Vanya at a brunch diner downtown awhile back. The other siblings were too busy, but Klaus had missed his sisters so much that he’d insisted the four of them who were free just meet up anyway, sibling law be damned. 

Klaus was heading straight to work after lunch, and he took that into account while getting dressed for the day - which meant absolutely nothing. He’d left his apron at work the night before, and nobody seemed to care what Klaus wore to work, as long as all the important parts were covered. He threw on a hot pink tank top, with an oversized sheer and sparkly long sleeved black shirt overtop, tucked into his favourite pair of leather pants with lace up the sides of the legs. 

He leant close into the mirror in his room to apply eyeliner, eyeshadow, and a touch of rosy pink lipstick. When he was done, Klaus leant back to take in his full look.  
“Beautiful,” Klaus said, blowing himself a kiss into the mirror. He was still striking poses and winking at himself when Ben walked in without knocking, catching Klaus with one hand on his ass, and the other in the air.

Klaus froze for only a second, before striking a Vogue pose. He kept a straight face while looking at Ben through the mirror, but his eyes shone with amusement.  
“We’re gonna miss the train, come on,” Ben said, stifling a laugh. 

For Ben’s sake, Klaus threw one more exaggerated kiss at the mirror, before rushing his brother out the door. Their train station was just a couple of blocks away, and they made the train with just moments to spare, throwing themselves down into a couple of open seats.

Neither of them drove, but in the city it didn’t really matter. Ben had gotten his license as soon as he could, but after the accident, wouldn’t be caught dead in the driver's seat of a car. 

And for Klaus, it had just never happened. By the time he was old enough to sit for his learners, Klaus wasn’t exactly in the right state of mind, and that only got worse. You couldn’t exactly take your drivers test when you weren’t sober for longer than twenty minutes a day.

Even after getting sober, Klaus had too many other important things to worry about, like getting a job, and a home, and just not falling off the rails again. Ben bugged Klaus about endless things, but he never pressured Klaus to drive, and in return, Klaus gave Ben the same courtesy. 

They both happily stuck to trains and buses, or just walking, and in Ben’s case, occasionally his bike. 

On the way there, Ben told Klaus about the new article he was writing. Klaus was grateful that the diner was only a couple stops from their house, because he was about to scream from boredom. He loved Ben, well and truly, but sometimes he was just so bland!

Allison and Vanya had beaten the two of them to the diner, scoring seats on the patio. Klaus almost complained that it was too hot to be out in the sun, but held back when Ben shot him a look to keep his mouth shut. Ben knew Klaus so well that it was almost freaky.

“Allie! Vanya!” Klaus said loudly, as they reached the table. The sisters both stood up, smiling warmly, to greet Ben and Klaus. “You both look so beautiful! Allison, is that a new dress? Do a spin for me! It’s gorgeous!”

“You can’t steal it, Klaus,” Allison said, but she still spun for Klaus, the red dress lifting up slightly, gushing around her knees when she stopped. Klaus clapped with glee.  
“Sure, sure, of course sis, wouldn’t dream of it,” Klaus said, taking a seat. Everyone at the table knew full well that the dress would be in Klaus’ possession by this time next month at the very latest. 

Over lunch, Vanya told them all about how she had been hired by Allison’s new movie to play her violin for the main score, and how exciting it was. Vanya had been the most timid of them all growing up, shy and kind of mousy, but had really blossomed into herself after moving out of their childhood home. 

Klaus listened to his sisters eagerly. He knew he’d missed them, but he hadn’t realized how much. Allison glowed when she told them about Claire’s latest dance recital, and how she was the top of her grade. 

Vanya had babysat Claire recently, and despite his pledge to stay far away from children in case of fucking them up, Klaus felt a pang of jealousy. He was immediately distracted from it when Vanya told him that Claire had specifically asked about her Uncle Klaus, but not Uncle Ben.

Klaus had almost forgotten that he had something he wanted to talk about, until Vanya tentatively brought up the fact that she’d gone on a date recently. Klaus shot up, remembering, but waited, not very patiently, until his sister was done talking.

“I just have the worst luck when it comes to dating,” Vanya said. “Seriously, she offers to walk me back to my apartment so I’m thinking it’s going well, but when we get there, she says she just isn’t feeling it, but we could be friends if I wanted.”

Vanya sighed, and played with her food, a bad habit she’d always had.  
“Her loss! You’re awesome,” Allison said.  
By then, Klaus was about ready to explode.

“I met someone!” he exclaimed before Vanya could say anything back to Allison. Ben raised an eyebrow at him.  
“Really?” Allison said.  
“Okay, so not really like that, we’re not dating, and he doesn’t even know I’m interested which is super weird for me, but I basically told him straight up that I’d be down, and he didn’t even notice. I think maybe he flirts with me, but I literally can’t tell, and I’m going insane a little!” Klaus said. He spoke so fast that he wasn’t even sure if is siblings had caught it all. 

“His name is Dave, and he’s one of Klaus’ customers,” Ben said for clarification.  
“That’s so exciting, Klaus,” Vanya said.  
“Thanks, I know. He’s very exciting. I’m in love with him,” Klaus said with a grin.

Allison and Vanya shared a laugh, and Ben just sat there smirking.  
“What?” Klaus said, looking between them.

“Sweetheart, you can’t be in love with someone you barely know,” Allison said.  
“I can, too. And I know him! He was in the army but hated it, he’s an English teacher, he’s gay, and…” Klaus trailed off. He knew he knew more about Dave, but all of a sudden it didn’t seem like much. Everyone liked sugar, and most people had sisters. Klaus realized all of a sudden that besides the fact that Dave was gay, Klaus didn’t really know many details about Dave.

“The fact that he came out to you is something big, but you need more,” Vanya said.  
“I can’t exactly ask him to tell me his life story while I’m on shift! It’d be weird,” Klaus said, defending himself.  
“So just ask him to get dinner,” Ben said, voice flat. This was something he’d told Klaus to do multiple times over the past couple of weeks. 

“Are you insane? You’ve gone crazy. I’d rather have Diego stab me, than ask Dave out,” Klaus said, eyes wide.  
“Why? You’ve never really hesitated when you’ve had crushes before,” Allison said.  
“Yeah, well. There’s just something about Dave. I can flirt a little bit, but I’m too shy to actually do anything,” Klaus said.

A beat passed, and then both Allison and Vanya let out an ‘awh!’ each.  
“This is like, a real crush then, huh?” Allison said, leaning over the table to grab Klaus’ hand like a proud mom.  
“You’re worried you’re going to scare him off!” Vanya said, reaching out too. 

Klaus pulled his hand back before she could get there, pouting when the sisters shared an amused look.  
“Whatever, I just wanted to ask you what I should do, but obviously you’re as much help as tentacle boy over here,” Klaus said. 

“Tentacle?” Vanya asked.  
“A dream,” Ben said.  
“Ah.”

“We are being helpful, Klaus,” Allison said, leaning forward once again, this time to stare directly at Klaus. “You need to ask him out. You’re not afraid of anything, and you’re certainly not afraid of asking a man out.”

Klaus bit his lip, nodding slightly, before throwing himself back in his chair, breaking eye contact.  
“Nope! None of your voodoo today, nope!” Klaus exclaimed.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Allison said, leaning back. “But I mean it. You’ve never really been afraid of anything. What’s different this time?

Klaus looked up to the sky, willing it to come down and swallow him whole. When it didn’t, he groaned, running his palms down his face.  
“I don’t know what’s different, okay? I’ve never really dealt with this kind of thing before. It’s always been one night stands or dating someone because I needed something from them, but… I don’t need anything from Dave. I just like to see him smile,” Klaus said, finally. 

His siblings were silent for a long moment, processing the fact that their brother, a disaster of a man, finally had a real, pure crush.  
“But why are you afraid?” Vanya asked.

“I’m not. I’m just worried that maybe, if I make a real move, that…” Klaus waved his ‘hello’ hand in the air, trying to find his words. “I’ll scare him off. He’ll stop coming in, or worse, he’ll tell me he hates me or something. And I think scaring him off might kill me.”

“Klaus, we just want you to be happy,” Allison said. She was cut off from saying anything else when a couple of pre-teens interrupted them, asking for a photo with Allison.

Klaus took the opportunity to excuse himself to the bathroom. Staring at himself in the mirror, he huffed a sigh, searching his own face like he’d find a clue on how to be the kind of happy his siblings wanted for him. He didn’t think he’d ever be fully, truly happy with Dave in his life as just a crush, but the risk was too high. Maybe he wouldn’t be totally happy, but honestly? It was enough.

Just being able to see Dave’s blue eyes sparkle, and to see him smile at something stupid Klaus said. To see Dave’s lips wrapped around the straw of the drinks he let Klaus create for him, to listen to his voice as he talked, the deep voice that was somehow also soft and sweet, the voice that Klaus heard in his dreams. 

Yeah, that was enough.


	8. cotton candy frappe

Allison paid for the entire bill, despite her siblings fake protests. It was very common knowledge between the Hargreeve’s that Allison made the most money, by far, out of all of them. It wasn’t up for discussion, it was just a fact. One Klaus rarely complained about when it meant he’d be able to steal some real Gucci and Chanel. 

After giving his sisters both huge hugs and kisses on the cheeks, and flipping Ben the bird just because he could, Klaus hopped on a train alone to make it to work. Ben was heading to Vanya’s for tea. 

He made it there early enough to make himself a drink (an iced dirty vanilla chai), and take his time counting his till. Before popping his cash drawer into the till, Klaus stopped to pick up the cafe smartphone. 

“Adrian, any requests?” Klaus called out.  
“I like what’s already playing, actually,” Adrian said. It was one of those ‘coffee shop’ playlists, the kind that made Klaus want to blow his brains out. 

They were the worst kind of playlists, the only songs on them being slowed down acoustic covers of top 40 songs that were already slow and boring to start with. 

“Hm,” Klaus said, and Adrian rolled his eyes, knowing there was no chance Klaus wasn’t going to change it.

He picked out a playlist he’d saved a while back full of underrated 70’s hits, turning it up, and grinned when Lola by the Kinks filled the cafe. Klaus whistled along while clocking in.

“What’d you do today?” Adrian asked, glancing up from where he was cleaning the syrup pumps at the sink.  
“Went to dinner with Ben and my sisters!” Klaus said.

“When are you gonna ask Allison for an autograph for me?” Adrian asked. He’d been pressuring Klaus to get him one for ages. Klaus always said the same thing in return.  
“Ask her yourself, she comes in all the time.”

“Ugh,” Adrian groaned. “I get too scared when she comes in, I normally make Ella serve her.”  
“Your loss, bud,” Klaus said. “Allison’s the sweetest person I know, she’s not gonna punch you. She totally could, but she won’t. Just don’t ask Diego for his autograph.”

“Why would I do that?” Adrian frowned.  
“To get punched?” Klaus shrugged, leaving to go serve a customer. 

The cafe was busy enough that time passed decently fast. Zee came in again, and told Klaus he’d gone back to the shelter, and Klaus gave him a celebratory muffin, as well as his regular cup of hot water. 

It had just gotten late enough, with two and a half hours to close, that Klaus began to think that maybe Dave wasn’t going to show up, that the beautiful man strolled in, holding his briefcase.

Klaus all but leapt to the till before Adrian could get there, and had just a second to catch his breath and compose himself before Dave saw him. 

“Hey there,” Dave said with a grin.  
“Hey, Davey boy,” Klaus said, cocking his head slightly.

Dave’s eyes roamed down Klaus’ body, as low down as he could see behind the counter, and then back up to Klaus’ face, which was looking down, flushed.

“You look really good today, Klaus,” Dave said when Klaus didn’t look up again. “I like the lipstick.”  
Klaus finally looked up to meet Dave’s eyes.

“Really?”  
“Mhmm. It suits you,” Dave said.

Out of the corner of his eye, Klaus could see Adrian practically groan with his entire body, eyes thrown back dramatically. 

“Thank you,” Klaus said in basically a whisper.  
“Yeah. Do you, uh, mind if I stay, again?” Dave said softly.  
“You know I’m not allowed to say no, right?” Klaus said.

Dave laughed lightly, and shrugged.

“I guess. Didn’t really think about it. Here,” Dave said, handing over a five dollar bill.  
Along with the change, Dave put an extra five dollars into the tip jar, before going to set up in the same table he’d sat in last time. 

Klaus turned his back to Dave, unable to focus on figuring out a drink for him while looking at him at the same time. After a long moments consideration, Klaus grabbed a blender, and filled it with 3 pumps raspberry, 2 pumps vanilla, 1 blue raspberry, and 1 strawberry, with vanilla powder, whole milk and ice. 

After blending to the perfect consistency, and topping it with vanilla whipped cream, Klaus brought the drink to Dave’s table, setting it down gently. 

“You didn’t have to bring it to me,” Dave said, but he looked grateful. Papers were already spread all over the table, threatening to spill over the edge and onto the floor.  
“I know,” Klaus said. “It’s a cotton candy frappe. At least it’s supposed to be, I haven’t tried it before.”

“I’m sure it’ll be perfect!” Dave said, looking at Klaus fondly.  
Klaus stared down at Dave for a moment, before nodding shortly, and shuffling away to behind the counter. 

What his sisters said couldn’t stop replaying in Klaus’ head. He couldn’t be in love with Dave if he didn’t know anything about him. Just a few hours ago, Klaus had decided that loving only the idea of Dave was enough. 

However, looking over at Dave’s sparkling blue eyes, and messy brown hair, that decision flew out the window, never to be seen again.

Klaus busied himself to the best of his abilities, just to make sure he wasn’t standing there, creepily staring at Dave. He deep cleaned the bathrooms, caught up on dishes, checked off almost everything on the closing list like stocking the baked display and sweeping behind the counter. 

He restocked their tea containers and filled the honey bottles, and wiped the front doors and the fridges down. Soon enough, there wasn’t really much left to do unless Klaus wanted to break out the monthly closing list. As much as Klaus was desperate for work to do, he hated that list with a passion. 

Resigning himself to only being left to help customers and fuck around with Adrian, Klaus had much more time to take Dave in. 

He was staring intensely at one paper, a hand on his forehead, and the other clutching his glass. Dave looked frustrated, and tired, and cold, and Klaus wanted nothing more than to envelop him into a hug.

Just when Klaus thinking about losing the battle nobody knew he was fighting, and bringing Dave a free cookie just to say hi again, Five appeared in front of him.

“Klaus,” Five said in greeting.  
Klaus jumped back slightly, right hand reaching up to clutch his heart.  
“Christ on a cracker, Five,” Klaus said. 

Five had a terrible habit of sneaking up on people, the fucker.  
“You good, bro?” a voice full of humor spoke up from behind Five.

“Diego, christ. Yeah. You two hanging out without me?” Klaus pouted, once he’d gathered himself.  
“Yes,” Five said, at the exact same time as Diego said “not really.”

Klaus raised an eyebrow, and leant forward onto the counter to rest his head on his palms.  
“Oh? Do tell,” he said.

“We hit up a class at Luther’s gym. You wouldn’t have wanted to come, and we came to see you anyway,” Diego said.  
“Little Fivey went to a gym class?” Klaus laughed.

Five definitely kept in shape, and could more than handle himself, but Five wasn’t much of a team player, and he hated being told what to do more than anyone Klaus knew. 

The idea of Five in the back of the class, most likely complaining about everything the instructor was saying, and Diego threatening him to shut up, was hilarious. 

“Yeah, I think he’d have gotten us banned for life if Luther hadn’t stepped in,” Diego said.  
“I won’t be going back anyway,” Five scowled. “And don’t call me that.”

“How tragic for Luther. You guys wanna come over for pizza later this week? Ben’s buying,” Klaus said.  
The brothers worked out that Thursday worked for them all, when Five finally grumbled that he needed his coffee.

“I was wondering how long it’d take you to break,” Klaus said with a lazy grin. “Yeah, black coffee. Diego? Americano or mocha?”

“Mocha,” Diego said. He usually alternated between the two depending on his mood. Based on the drink of choice, Klaus could guess he was probably heading to Eudora’s after this. 

“Make it two,” Diego added on, confirming Klaus’ suspicions.  
Klaus took Five’s cash, his staff discount tacked onto their order, before he commented. 

“So… that’s still serious, huh? You gonna be Mr Diego Patch anytime soon?” Klaus said loudly.  
“Are you looking to get stabbed?” Diego asked. Five rolled his eyes, and took a seat at the bar.  
“You’re a man of the law, Di, you can’t stab me,” Klaus said, handing over Five’s coffee.

“I can, and I will,” Diego said, making a mock move towards Klaus.  
Klaus squealed and jumped back, dramatically falling onto the back counter.  
“Asshole,” Klaus said. “I don’t care, as long as I’m best man.”

Diego glared at him, but Klaus shrugged it off knowing Diego didn’t mean any real harm, and started working on Diego’s drinks. He looked up for a moment, and noticed Dave staring at the three of them, a faint smile on his lips. 

They made eye contact for just a moment, before Klaus stared back at the pitcher of steaming chocolate milk he held in his hands.

“What’s that about?” Five said.  
“What?” Klaus said, his voice high.  
“That man over there. Who is he?” Five said. Diego less than subtly looked over at Dave.

Klaus cursed the Gods for making Five so fucking observant. Klaus always thought Five could easily take over the world if he wanted, with how attentive and perceptive he was. 

“Just a customer,” Klaus shrugged, trying to keep his voice casual. He knew he definitely failed when Diego smirked at him. 

Klaus had wanted to talk to his sisters about Dave, and keeping a secret from Ben wasn’t something he was capable of, but Klaus hadn’t exactly wanted to bring it up with his other brothers. It’s not that they weren’t supportive of him, just that it was different.  
Five wasn’t much for romance anyway, and Diego, while he was certainly improving every day, wasn’t the greatest at talking about emotions. 

“He’s been staring at you,” Five said, despite his back facing Dave.  
“Has he? I hadn’t noticed,” Klaus said airily.  
“Do you want me to make him stop?” Five said.

“Christ, no. Five, God,” Klaus said. He spared a glance at Diego, who looked like he was about to pounce on poor Dave, who was now looking very pointedly down at his papers. 

“Diego, seriously. He’s just a customer. We’re friendly, and the two of you draw a lot of attention to yourselves. Of course he’s looking.”

In reality, Klaus had no idea why he’d caught Dave staring at them. Sure, it could have just been that moment, but Five had commented on it. 

Despite not being the greatest at social cues and at being polite, Five still knew that someone staring at someone for a few seconds isn’t weird. Five must have noticed it at least a couple of times before speaking up.

“Whatever, bro,” Diego said, grabbing the drinks Klaus set down on the bar. “As long as you’re sure he isn’t about to murder you.” 

“Diego, don’t you think if I was going to get murdered, it would have been while living on the street?” Klaus said.  
“You never know. Five almost murders you once a month,” Diego said. 

“Bi-montly,” Five said. “Bye, Klaus.”  
“Wait! Twice a month, or every two months?” Klaus called after his brothers. Neither turned around to answer him. “Great, I’m gonna get killed by my own brother just for being a dumbass,” he grumbled to himself. 

“I’m sorry, what?” said Ella, who had come to the front with a bin full of clean dishes.  
“Hm? Oh nothing, just my murderous baby brother apparently has it out for me,” Klaus said, waving his ‘hello’ hand around in the air.  
“Who doesn’t? You’re annoying as fuck,” Ella said with a smirk.

“Hey!” Klaus said, mildly offended.  
“Kidding. You wanna take your break?” Ella said.  
“Uh, yeah, yeah, sure,” Klaus said, looking over at Dave.

The break booth was open, but it was close enough to the table that Dave had sat at that it would be a little weird. Dave didn’t know it was the break spot, so it would probably come off a little stalkery for Klaus to sit there. He didn’t like sitting in the office though, it was too stuffy in there. 

Klaus supposed he could go sit on the other side of the cafe, but a group of loud teens had come in a while back and were taking up quite a few tables. Another option was, he could ask Dave if he could sit with him. But that would make Klaus insane.

“Klaus?” Ella said, squinting at Klaus.  
“Hm? Sorry, zoned out. Yeah, I’ll take my break.”

Klaus wandered into the back, figuring that maybe if he fucked around for most of it, he’d never have to make a decision, and hung up his apron. He swiped a day old muffin that had been left on the staff counter, most likely for him, and took a bite, blueberries exploding in his mouth. 

“Klaus? Are you okay?” Charity asked from behind him. She was holding a big pot full of cheese sauce for their mac and cheese but had paused in the process of whatever she was doing with it when she saw him stilled by the door to the rest of the cafe. A still Klaus was very unusual. 

“Hm? Oh yeah, never been better,” Klaus said, turning around to give her a wide smile.  
Charity pointedly raised an eyebrow at him, but he waved her off. 

“It’s all good! I’m on my break!” he said, holding his muffin up to her as if to prove it.  
“Okay,” Charity said with a shrug of her shoulders, heading back into the kitchen.

Klaus spun around again and took a deep breath. He knew that even though he couldn’t make a decision on where to sit, as soon as he walked out there, his subconscious would make that choice for him. 

As soon as Klaus stepped out from the back, his feet took him to Dave’s table. He silently cursed himself out until Dave noticed him a couple steps away.  
“Hey, what’s up?” Dave said softly. 

Dave’s soft voice was more than enough to stop Klaus’ mental argument with himself.  
“Nothing. I’m on my break. Do you mind if I join you? I can go sit over there if you want to be left alone, or if you want I can even go sit in the office where you don’t have to see me,” Klaus said.

Dave blinked up at him, and Klaus shuffled his feet on the spot.  
“Uh, you can sit. You don’t have to hide, and I could use a break. My brain is beginning to fry,” Dave said after a long moment. 

Klaus gratefully took a seat. The worst case scenario had been that Dave sent him away and that hadn’t happened, so everything from here was pretty smooth sailing. 

“How’s the marking going?” Klaus asked. He looked down at the papers, eyes flitting over them all. 

The pile of papers needing to be graded was still decently sized, but it looked small enough now that Dave would probably be able to get through them before the cafe locked up for the night. 

“Slow. But I’m getting there,” Dave said with a tired smile. “I was thinking I might have to get a second drink, something with more caffeine. I’ll wait until you’re done your break though.”

“Why?” Klaus asked. He knew all of his coworkers could come up with something fun, and they were all friendly and good at their job. Why did Dave insist on only being served by Klaus?

“Uh. It’s kinda tradition, now I guess,” Dave said awkwardly. “Do you mind if I ask you who those two guys where?”

Klaus scrunched up his face, eyes squinting at Dave in confusion.  
“Oh!” he said after a moment. “You mean Five and Diego. Why?”  
“Just wondering,” Dave said, looking down at his papers, a small blush making its way across his cheeks. 

Klaus was silent for a moment, going over everything in his mind. His sisters had accused Klaus of not really knowing anything about Dave (a fair accusation), and Dave had just asked Klaus a mildly intrusive question. 

Does this mean Dave wants to know more about Klaus, as much as Klaus wants to know more about Dave.

“I’m about to suggest something really stupid,” Klaus said.  
Dave looked up again, giving Klaus a puzzled look.  
“Do you wanna play twenty questions?” Klaus asked. 

“You should like one of my students,” Dave said with a soft laugh.  
“Is that a no?” Klaus asked, pouting slightly.  
“Is that your first question?” Dave asked.

Klaus huffed a laugh, grinning widely at Dave.  
“Absolutely not. Is your first question still about Five and Diego?” Klaus said.  
Dave nodded, and Klaus leant back into his chair, a hand lifting up to stroke his chin jokingly. 

“I could give you details and let you waste all your questions trying to figure everything out, or I could be nice and give you a detailed answer,” Klaus said. 

Dave chewed back a smile, letting Klaus decide.

“Okay. Five and Diego are two of my adopted brothers. I have six siblings. Technically foster siblings, I guess,” Klaus said, meeting himself halfway. He wanted to leave Dave with enough questions left to ask what he wanted to ask, but didn’t want to make it too easy for him.

“Six siblings? I remember you telling me that before, but I still can’t wrap my mind around it,” Dave said. “Your turn.”

“I know. It’s a lot, always has been. What’s your family like?” Klaus asked.

“Loud. Happy, I guess. We’re pretty close. It’s just my sister, my mom, and I. My dad passed away a few years back. My mom’s started dating again and I think she’s doing okay. My sister, Lily, and her husband are pregnant,” Dave said.

Klaus stared fondly at Dave while he spoke. He had this far-away look on his face when he talked about his family, like he was looking back at his happy childhood. 

Klaus’ siblings made him happier than anything in the world, and he loved them so much, but he’d give anything to be able to look back on a happy childhood. His siblings may be great, but they hadn’t made up for the abuse Mr Hargreeve’s had forced upon them all. 

“Tell me about your siblings.” Dave prompting Klaus drew him out of his head.  
“Are you sure?” Klaus asked. “That’s kinda a long answer.” Dave nodded.

“Okay. We’re all basically the same age. There’s Luther. He’s like a giant, basically, it’s kinda unnerving. He likes to think he’s the boss of all of us, but he’s not. He has the best intentions though. 

Then there’s Diego, he’s the one who was in here earlier, dressed like he was about to go to a BDSM convention. He’s a cop and acts like he’s all bad ass, but seriously, Dave, he’s like a giant teddy bear on the inside. 

Allison is a sweetheart. She was really conceited as a kid, but she’s calmed down now. She’s an actress and a family woman, and acts like our mom even though she’s definitely not. Five, the other one who was in here, thinks he’s sooo much smarter than the rest of us, and he is. 

It would almost be insufferable if I didn’t get to make fun of him for being tiny. He’s crazy loyal, though. Like I’m pretty sure he would die for me even though he acts like he hates me half the time. 

Ben is my ride or die, as the kids say. He’s the best of us all. Kind, and smart, and logical, and calming. I live with him and he always has dinner ready for us, even when I get off work at midnight. I don’t know where I’d be without any of my siblings, but if I didn’t have Ben, I’d probably be dead. 

And then there’s dear, sweet Vanya. She’s more quiet and shy than the rest of us, but she’s still powerful in her own way. She plays the violin, and Davey boy, you should hear it. 

When she plays, the rest of the world stops and listens. Vanya’s probably the most normal out of all of us, but that doesn’t mean she’s not crazy like the rest of us, too.”

Dave stared wide-eyed at Klaus, almost at a loss for words.  
“Sorry, I know it’s a lot,” Klaus said. “I warned you.”  
“Yeah, you did,” Dave laughed. “It sounds like you and your siblings love each other a lot.”

“We do. Where did you grow up?” Klaus said.

“Vancouver. After my tour ended, I got into school in Toronto. My family kinda moved with me, both mom and Lily live an hour away from here now. It just got too expensive to live in Vancouver, but I loved it there. Always busy and full of art and rainy. I love the rain,” Dave said.

“I hate the rain. Thunderstorms scare the shit out of me,” Klaus said, but it was deeper than that. His hatred of rain stemmed from the fact that for years, when it rained, sleeping was impossible, and he’d just get sick for weeks on end. 

Dave opened his mouth to reply, but immediately cut himself off, turning red. Before Klaus could ask, Dave quickly asked his question.  
“Do you like working here?”

“That’s your question? It’s kinda lame, spice it up!” Klaus said.  
“I wanna know,” Dave said.

“Fine,” Klaus huffed. “Yeah, I love it here. For the longest time, I just never thought I’d have a job, like, ever, and now I have one and it’s perfect for me. I like that it’s usually fast paced, or if it’s slow, at least there’s usually always something to do. I’m pretty good at the whole coffee thing, too.”

“You usually seem pretty happy when I see you here. It’s different, like when I stop by the coffee shop closest to my school, all the employees there look like they wanna die or something,” Dave said.  
“I don’t usually wanna die while I’m at work,” Klaus said, which was true. “What was serving like?”

“Oh. I should have figured you’d ask about that,” Dave said quietly.  
“Is that okay? I can ask something else, no harm, no foul,” Klaus said. The last thing he wanted to do was upset Dave.

“No, no, darlin’, it’s okay,” Dave said. He stared down at the table blankly, gathering his thoughts, and missed the very visible freak out Klaus was having with himself.

Klaus’ eyes were flown wide, and he was staring at Dave like he’d grown a second head. His face was the brightest red it had probably ever been, and he’d stopped breathing. Dave had called him darling. 

Dave looked up just as Klaus had managed to just barely collect himself.  
“You okay?” Dave asked, looking genuinely concerned.  
“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, just waiting on you. No pressure, though,” Klaus said, forcing himself to smile widely. 

“Okay. Uh, yeah, serving was the worst time of my life. It was hot and damp constantly, and I hated fighting. I watched too many of my brothers die in front of me, and found the bodies of too many dead civilians, and sometimes I wished I could just die with them too, so I didn’t have to keep living through the hell. But I didn’t die, and I made it out physically unscathed, and now I have to live with the knowledge of everything I did over there to survive.”

Klaus smiled softly, and reached out a slightly shaking hand over the table, placing it on Dave’s lower arm. The second Klaus’ skin touched Dave’s, his insides felt like they were about to boil over. 

He could have sworn there was the slightest of an electric shock. Dave’s arm was muscular, toned, but not too hard, and his skin was just as warm as Klaus’ felt. 

He squeezed softly, and pulled away much sooner than he would have liked to. The touch only lasted no more than three seconds, but it felt like a short eternity. 

“I’m glad you’re alive,” Klaus said softly.  
“Yeah, me too,” Dave said. His eyes were stuck on his own arm, where Klaus’ hand had been. “Uh, um. Sorry,” Dave said, finally dragging his eyes away, meeting Klaus’. “Why did you think you’d never have a job?”

“That’s cheating, asking questions that came from an answer,” Klaus said.  
“No, that’s literally how you play,” Dave said.  
“Hm, whatever, whatever,” Klaus said, waving a wrist around in the air. “Again, it’s a heavy question. One with a long answer.” 

“I like listening to you,” Dave said, not meeting Klaus’ eyes anymore.  
“Oh. Well, uh, you may not think that after I answer this one,” Klaus said. When Dave didn’t reply, Klaus signed dramatically. 

“Fine, fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’m two years sober now, but I was a drug addict and an alcoholic for years. Since I was maybe eleven. I was too fucked up as a teenager to work, and my father didn’t want me in the public eye like that anyway, and then I lived on the streets for a few years, and it’s kinda hard to get a job when you’re never sober for more than half an hour, and you don’t have an address,” Klaus said. 

He had his eyes trained on a dirty spot on a window behind Dave the entire time, and keeps staring in silence at it once he’s done talking. Klaus makes a mental note to clean it later that night. 

“Congratulations. On your sobriety. That’s awesome, Klaus,” Dave said. He waited patiently until Klaus turned his attention back to Dave.  
“That’s all you have to say?” Klaus practically whispered.

“For now. I might cheat and ask you a question based on your answer. But for now, yeah, that’s all I have to say,” Dave said.  
“Oh. Okay. That’s cool. Cool, yeah, thank you,” Klaus said. “I know, I’m pretty awesome.”

“Definitely. You wanna ask me your question?” Dave said. 

“Yup!” Klaus said, louder than necessary. He had literally shaken off the smallness he had felt in the moment earlier, and was trying to make up for it. “Hmmm… How and when did you know you were gay?”

“Oh, good one!” Dave said, smiling warmly. “I dated a lot of girls in high school, but I never really felt anything for them. Like I thought they were cute and enjoyed their company, but I never really wanted to have sex with them or kiss them, and I didn’t think about them all the time. I’d thought that was normal, though. To just not care that much about your girlfriend. I talked to a friend about it and he said it wasn’t normal at all, and suddenly I was a senior in high school and my entire life was blown wide open. 

I turned nineteen just before I left to serve, and went to my local gay bar with my friend just for fun, and ended up going home with another boy. I spent pretty much my entire tour trying to figure everything out, you know, like analyzing my interactions with boys throughout my life compared to my interactions and feelings for girls. By the time I came home, I’d realized I was gay.”

“You didn’t know until you were nineteen?” Klaus asked. Klaus knew plenty of people who didn’t know they were LGBT until they were middle aged, but every time he met someone new who didn’t figure it out until a bit later in life, he was always floored. 

It just made him unbearably sad, because he knew the reason it took some people so long to figure it out is because the entire world basically revolves around straight cis people. 

Klaus knows how lucky he was to have figured himself out so young. Every LGBT person deserves to be able to know themselves as young as possible, but that’s not a luxury that is readily available to most people in the community. 

Even Vanya didn’t figure out she was a lesbian until she was twenty-one, and she grew up with Klaus and Diego, who both knew they were, respectively, pansexual and non-binary, and bisexual and transgender as pre-teens. The two couldn’t have been prouder when Vanya came out. 

“Nope. I didn’t really have any LGBT influences in my life until I got older, so it had never really crossed my mind. It’s part of why make sure I teach content that has plenty of representation in it,” Dave said, confirming a lot of Klaus’ theory. 

“That’s a good idea. I’m sure at least a few of your students are secretly thanking you for it,” Klaus said. 

“I hope so,” Dave said. “I just make sure I keep it casual enough none of them start questioning me. Like I said, it wouldn’t be a big deal, it’s just not something I really want broadcasted because you never know who it’ll reach, you know?” 

“I get it,” Klaus said, looking down at his phone for a second to glance at the time. He got distracted for a moment by his notifications.

A few texts from Ben. One updating him on some gossip Vanya had told him, another asking what he wanted for dinner, and another saying he’d picked chili, since Klaus hadn’t answered. 

There were snapchats from Sarah, Luther, and Diego, an instagram message from Allison, and co-star telling him that he was due for a ‘self love’ day. 

After glancing over them all quickly on the home screen, Klaus finally remembered he was supposed to be checking the time, and swore under his breath.  
“Sorry, Davey, I only have a couple minutes left of my break. I think we’re at four each,” Klaus said.

A look of disappointment flashed across Dave’s face, just for a moment, but long enough for Klaus to have noticed.

“How about we finish next time we see each other? When I’m on break or if I finish early and you’re around. It's a once in a blue moon type of rare, but sometimes I work without closing,” Klaus said quickly.

“Yeah, that works! I like doing my work here, I’ll probably be around more,” Dave said. “It’s a nice atmosphere. I like the lighting and the drinks and the, uh, art on the walls. The music, too.”  
“You like the music? I picked it!” Klaus grinned.

Ring My Bell by Anita Ward was playing, and Dave hummed along for a moment to prove his point.  
“I love all the oldies, 70’s and 80’s music, but I especially love disco. I was practically raised on Donna Summer, and Kool & The Gang,” Dave said.

It took everything Klaus had in him to get up, instead of asking Dave to, for the love of God, elaborate.  
“We’re talking disco next time,” Klaus said, holding up his ‘goodbye’ hand, before scurrying away to the back. 

As soon as Klaus was back on shift, apron tied neatly around his waist, Dave was up at the counter, ordering a second drink. This time, Klaus presented him with a brown sugar cinnamon cold brew with whipped cream and cinnamon on top. 

“You really like whipped cream, huh?” Dave said, smiling down at his drink.  
“No beverage is complete without it,” Klaus said.  
“I wholeheartedly agree,” Dave said, returning to his drink.

Near the end of the night, Klaus went to clean the bathrooms, and when he came out, Dave was gone. He wasn’t upset by Dave’s disappearance, though. He’d finally learnt some real, actual facts about Dave, and there was chili waiting for him at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter kinda got away from me, but i'm more or less happy with it! let me know what you guys think!!
> 
> also can u tell i started projecting towards the end there lol..................  
> straight up, disco is my favourite genre non-ironically and has been for years - i literally attend real discos in my city in the year of 2019 - so u bet ur asses i'm gonna bring up disco again soon


	9. co-star

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for no update!! here's a shorter chapter

The next morning, co-star told Klaus that he was ‘not his job,’ which quickly prompted a nervous breakdown. He laid starfish, face first, in his bed for hours until Ben came knocking, asking why he hadn’t moved yet.

“What does that even mean?” Klaus groaned, shoving his phone in Ben’s direction. Ben saved it two seconds away from falling onto the floor. Klaus shuffled to his side so he was glaring up at his brother.  
“What?” Ben asked, looking at the screen, confused.

“I am not my job. What does that even mean. If I’m not my job, them I’m a homeless junkie who everybody hates,” Klaus mumbled.  
“I don’t think it means it like that, Klaus,” Ben said, his voice patient. “It just means that there’s more to you than your job.”

“Like what? There’s nothing. I’m nothing. Soul Cafe is all I have,” Klaus said.  
“You have me. And the rest of us,” Ben said slowly. It was hard not to take it personally when Klaus said those types of things.

“Yeah, but you all have other things. Partners and degrees and jobs that pay over minimum wage. I just have all of you, and I’ve lost you all before, and it’ll probably happen again, and then I’ll lose this job, and then I’ll be sleeping in alleyways again,” Klaus said. He was nearing the verge of tears.

“Klaus… you know that’s not true. Where is this really coming from? You were so happy last night,” Ben said.  
“That was last night. Things change, brother dearest,” Klaus said, shoving his face back into his mattress. “Leave me alone.”

There was a long pause, before Ben huffed a sigh, and left the room, shutting Klaus’ door softly. Klaus knew Ben wouldn’t give him much longer to wallow, but he was thankful Ben had listened for at least a moment.

Truth was, Klaus had already woken up feeling awful, and the notification was just the trigger. He had come home last night absolutely elated that he’d finally had a real, substantial conversation with Dave. Ben had been so happy for him that he’d even let Klaus have most of the cheese for the top of his chili in celebration. 

But the nighttime gives thoughts time to wander. Klaus had stared up at the fairy lights strung on his ceiling, that were always left on all night, letting his eyes get blurry and out of focus. It occured to him just how fucking stupid he was for starting a game that allowed Dave to ask him anything.

Yeah, Klaus could lie, but he didn’t want to. Not to Dave. But just one question, or one answer, could send Dave scampering. If Dave found out Klaus used to sell himself for smack, there was no way Dave would ever come back to the cafe. It would be too much.

The idea of losing Dave, even when Klaus didn’t have him, made heavy rocks grow in Klaus’ chest. He hated that he was so small, and breakable, that even the possibility of Dave cutting him out of his life had Klaus crying into his pillow, and his cravings grow that much stronger. 

Losing Dave would probably mean losing his sanity, which meant losing his sobriety, then losing his job, then his house, then his family, and it just went on and on. Klaus had nothing if he didn’t have his small pleasures in life, like chatting with Dave, and watering Ben’s plants, and stealing Allison’s heels. 

He was especially nothing if he didn’t have his job. Working was the only thing that kept the other things around. If Klaus lost his job, Luther would probably yell at him and Vanya would be disappointed, and Ben would try his best to be supportive, but would eventually have to kick Klaus out because he couldn’t pay any rent or bills.

Waking up to being told he was ‘more than his job’ felt like a slap in the face. Klaus had literally nothing to his name. Ben was the only one officially on the lease, Ben’s name was on the bills, Klaus hadn’t gone to school, didn’t have a credit card, a car, and Allison paid for his phone. The only thing Klaus had that was his own, was his job. 

The only part of Klaus’ entire life that he was proud of and wanted to talk about was the past six months of his entire life. And now he had invited Dave to ask about the rest of the twenty-three years. Looking back, it was one of the stupidest things Klaus had ever done. He wanted to die. 

Ben would never allow him to die though, not when he’d fought so hard for Klaus to get to where he is now. He’d just yell about how Klaus had survived his entire life, in that hell house, and then on the streets, and how he wasn’t allowed to die now that everything was actually okay. Klaus knows how it would go, because he’s heard it before. 

And then there’s Dave. Dave’s going to hate him when he gets to know Klaus better, but he’s also going to hate him even more if Klaus dies, so. Lose lose. 

There’s a bottle of painkillers Ben keeps hidden away in an otherwise empty box of raisin granola cereal, which Ben knew Klaus wouldn’t touch. He’d only found them because Diego had reached for the box and mildly panicked look had crossed his face for just a second before putting it back. A curious Klaus had looked in the box later. 

Painkillers didn’t do much for him anyway - his tolerance was way too high, but it was something. Klaus turned and grabbed his headphones, St. Vincent filling his head, to keep him from thinking about the bottle. 

It doesn’t take much longer for Ben to come back in, sitting on the edge of his bed. Klaus sighs dramatically before taking his headphones off, music still playing softly from them.

“Please get up,” Ben implores, his voice tired.  
“No. You’re not in charge of me,” Klaus said, fully aware of how much he sounded like a child.

Ben just signs heavily, running a hand over his face.  
“You’re right. I’m not in charge of you, and I’m not your fucking babysitter. I’m your brother, and I love you, and I’m asking you to please get up,” Ben said.

Klaus was silent for a long moment. Despite having deep affection and love for each other as children, their home environment had been sterile and cold. Nobody ever said I love you, and nobody said I love you until Ben was in his coma and his siblings sobbed over his body. 

Even though he heard those words from his siblings all the time now, it still shook Klaus to his core every time. Out of all of them, he deserved to hear those words the least. Love didn’t exist for people like Klaus.

But Ben was begging him. And although Klaus himself didn’t deserve love, he had more than enough to give. Klaus wanted so badly to die, but he loved his brother enough to live for him. 

Klaus had told Ben so much a few months ago, and Ben had broken down into a sobbing mess on their couch. Klaus hadn’t known how to react, so he sat there rubbing a hand up and down Ben’s back, telling him he was sorry over and over again.

Eventually, Ben had collected himself enough to tell Klaus that while he was honored, Klaus needed to want to live just for himself. Klaus had smiled, and agreed, but until he could reach that point, Ben, and the others, were enough. 

“Please,” Ben said again, in a whisper.  
Klaus stared into his brothers eyes, which stared right back, baring into his soul.  
“Fine, fine, yeah, okay,” Klaus huffed, pushing Ben off his bed, and sitting up. 

“Do you work tonight?” Ben asked, watching as Klaus rubbed his face, and tugged at his hair, trying to gather himself.  
“What if Dave hates me?” Klaus said in response.

A frown took over Ben’s face. He hadn’t been expecting that.  
“What?” Ben asked.  
“If you want someone to love you, you actually have to let them get to know you, right?” Klaus asked.  
“Yeah.”

“What if when Dave gets to know me, he realizes he hates me?” Klaus’ voice is quiet, like he’s afraid that if he speaks too loudly, it’ll come true sooner.  
“Then he’s not worth your time, Klaus,” Ben said.

Klaus nodded softly, looking down at his own lap.  
“Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay, Benny, let me be,” Klaus said, shooing Ben out of his room. “I promise I won’t go back to bed.

“I’m holding you to that,” Ben said, before shutting the door behind him.  
“Asshole,” Klaus said under his breath, but there was a faint smile ghosting his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> was gonna write something happier but i've been feeling really down recently so i guess i'm taking it out on klaus! comment if u loved this or hated this or whatever love yall


	10. mint tea

Klaus snuck in the back door to the cafe just minutes before his shift was supposed to start. He was normally there with enough time to spare to say hi to his coworkers and make himself a drink, but getting himself to leave the house before he absolutely needed to today was difficult enough. 

A small figure snuck up behind Klaus, making him jump back from the coat rack in shock.  
“Christ on a cracker,” he said, holding his heart.  
“You okay, boo?” Kristina asked.

Klaus nodded, yes, yes absolutely, he was okay, and patted her on the shoulder before passing her. Kristina was a sweetheart, and Klaus loved her, but she didn’t work that much, and didn’t know Klaus well enough to see he was obviously lying. But really, she’d only really been asking because she’d scared him, so he wasn’t lying that much anyway.

Klaus grabbed his till and counted it as quick as he could, sliding it into the drawer a couple minutes late. If Ella noticed, she didn’t say anything.

Kristina was covering kitchen for Charity’s day off, and until Adrian was scheduled to show up for 7 pm, it was just Ella and Klaus up front. Unlike Kristina, Ella knew Klaus was feeling down just by looking at him.

She didn’t pry, though, instead just let Klaus do his work silently. Ella took till more often than not, leaving Klaus on bar, so his interactions with customers were minimal, which he was eternally grateful for. 

The shift passed excruciatingly slowly, and close came, and Dave still hadn’t stopped by. Klaus didn’t have enough energy to be disappointed.

In fact, he was almost grateful. Seeing Dave might have been too much for him today. Dave was too wonderful, and he didn’t deserve to see Klaus so low. 

Klaus followed Adrian and Ella out of the front door just after 11:30, carrying the last garbage.  
“See you guys later,” Ella said, over her shoulder, while locking the front door. “Feel better, Klaus.”

“Yeah, see you, man,” Adrian said, patting Klaus on the shoulder awkwardly, before stalking off.

“You gonna be okay, Klaus? I can take the garbage if you want,” Ella said, reaching a hand out.

“Nah, I got it, thanks. See ya,” Klaus said, going around the building to the back, where the shared bins with the surrounding businesses were, to toss the bag away. 

Klaus took his time with the walk home, not even bothering to put on his headphones. Sometimes the silence that was normally busy streets on a Tuesday at midnight was almost… cathartic.

There was a chill to the night air that hadn’t been there during Patio Hour, and Klaus’ tank top and sheer over-shirt didn’t do much to help. He hugged himself, willing it to warm up a little, but he wasn’t too bothered. 

Klaus complained about all types of weather, but having lived on the streets for two years, he was used to anything except snow. He’d never be used to snow.

By the time Klaus got home, it was a quarter past midnight, and he was fully expecting Ben to have gone to sleep. A movie was playing loudly enough to be heard before coming through the front door, though.

Klaus took a deep breath, collecting himself, before unlocking and throwing open the door dramatically.

“Bentacles, I’m home,” he exclaimed loudly, before falling silent.

Six pairs of eyes stared back at him, all with varying degrees of questioning and humor. Ben leaned over to pause the movie.

“Oh,” Klaus said, when none of them said anything.  
“Oh?” Diego said from the couch. “We’re all here for you at 1 am, and that’s all you have to say?”  
“It’s barely passed midnight, Diego,” Vanya piped up.  
“Whatever, my point still stands.”

“Are you okay, Klaus?” Allison asked, getting up from her spot on a pillow on the floor to give Klaus a hug.

He squeezed back softly, but pulled back after just a moment, something that was out of character for him. Allison noticed and frowned a little, but she didn’t mention it. 

“Yeah, yeah, sis, yeah, I’m okay,” Klaus said. 

It was obvious he was overwhelmed. He hadn’t been expecting to see all of his siblings on one of his worst days in a long time. He didn’t think he could handle them trying to give him a collective pep talk.

“They’re not here to talk, they’re here to watch stupid movies, throw popcorn at the screen with us, and Allison brought some nail polish if you want,” Ben said. 

Stupid Ben, his capability to read Klaus’ mind was scary sometimes. 

“I brought the popcorn,” Luther said. “Microwave butter kind, but also Chicago mix. That’s still your favourite, right?”

Klaus nodded, and smiled weakly.  
“Don’t you guys have to be up in the morning?” Klaus asked.

“I don’t have class tomorrow,” Five said, and the others followed up with their own defenses. Only Diego had to be up before the afternoon, and that boy had been running off of one to five hours of sleep a night since they were sixteen. 

Klaus sucked in his lip, weighing his options. He could send them away, and crawl into bed, and stare at his ceiling until 6 am, when he would inevitably cry himself to sleep. 

Or, he could listen to his siblings bicker until he forgot about his worries, and he’d hopefully wake up the next day with his heart a little fuller. 

Sighing, Klaus threw his bag on the ground, ignoring the eye squint Ben sent him. He’d pick it up later. He threw himself onto the floor with the clumsy grace that only he could manage, and looked around the room expectantly. 

“Okay, I bite. What movie are we watching?” He said, after no one else did. 

A moments silence, and then the room exploded into yelling.

“I wanted to watch Kill Bill,” Five said.  
“And you know we don’t support Tarantino in this family,” Allison said, glaring. 

“Okay, Allie, but I said Fight Club, and you said no, even though I know you’re friends with David Fincher,” Luther said.  
“We’re friendly, but that doesn’t cloud my judgement. Fight Club is awful, if you’re going to watch one of his movies, make it The Social Network,” Allison shot back.

“I was honestly surprised Diego wasn’t the one who suggested Fight Club,” Vanya said, laughing.  
“And side with Luther? Fuck you, V,” Diego said, with no heat to his words.

“I just don’t know what was wrong with Room,” Allison said.  
“We’re trying to cheer Klaus up, not depress him,” Ben said.

“So, you guys, uh. You decided on… Ice Age 2?” Klaus said, gesturing to the screen. 

“You know it’s the second based off of the singular frame it’s paused on?” Five said. “That’s embarrassing.”  
“It’s embarrassing how short you are,” Klaus said.

“I can, and will, murder you,” Five said.  
“Okay, fine, but murder me after we watch-”  
“We’re not watching The Emoji Movie,” Ben said, cutting Klaus off. 

“I wasn’t going to say that!” Klaus said, but he didn’t supply another movie. “Fine, let’s finish Ice Age!”

The night went on, and they moved on to watching To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, despite Luther and Diego’s best protests. Klaus absentmindedly wondered what type of movies Dave liked to watch. He was an English teacher, did that mean he was as pretentious and picky with movies as Allison was? 

Sipping the second cup of mint tea Vanya had brought him that night, Klaus smiled into the mug. Picking option two had definitely been the better choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait!! and for the really short chapter!!  
> After the last, i hit writers block and had no idea how to move on, especially if dave was involved, so i thought........ sibling bonding?? let me know what you guys think! please comment and leave kudos!!


	11. lemon sunset

“You’re in a better mood today,” Adrian said about an hour into Klaus’ shift the next day. “Wake up on the right side of the bed?”

“Awh, you noticed? That’s so sweet of you, my dearly beloved,” Klaus said.

They were the only two up front for the late afternoon shift, and Klaus had spent most of it flouncing around, knocking off the daily tasks quicker than Adrian could blink.

“Shut up, man,” Adrian swatted Klaus away.  
“Okay, okay, fine. I woke up on the couch, actually. My siblings came over last night, and we hung out til late. Most of them slept over.”

“Did Allison sleep over? What does she wear to bed?” Adrian asked.  
“Dude! That’s disgusting, you’re terrible, I’m not telling you,” Klaus said. Adrian raised an eyebrow, and Klaus swatted him away. “Ugh, just pajamas! Like any normal person!”

“There’s no way you wear pajamas to bed, Klaus,” Kristina piped up from the doorway to the back.  
“What a wild accusation to throw at me, Kris!” Klaus exclaimed, a hand on his heart.  
“Just saying, baby. There’s no way someone like you wears a matching Costco pajama set to bed.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry I asked about Allison, can we stop talking about this?” Adrian said, pushing his palms against his ears. He looked seconds away from shoving his fingers in his ears and singing la la la. 

“Stop talking about what?” a random voice said from in front of the counter, a voice Klaus could recognize instantly. 

Klaus spun around on his heels, grinning from ear to ear. There had been a little left over darkness from the day before, and seeing Dave’s face made that all evaporate in seconds. 

“Adrian here is asking me what my darling sister wears to sleep,” Klaus said, gesturing wildly to Adrian, but never breaking eye contact with Dave.

“That’s terrible,” Dave said around a laugh.  
“That’s what I said!” Klaus said loudly enough for an older couple sitting near the front counter to look over at them disapprovingly. 

“Kindred,” Dave said, and Klaus smiled widely at him.

Adrian looked between the two of them, before sighing loudly.  
“Klaus, Ella’s gonna be here in five minutes, do you wanna take your break then?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that would be great. I’m starving,” Klaus said. “In the meantime, Davey-boy, am I taking your order?”

Dave blushed heavily and nodded, taking a couple steps towards the till. Klaus followed, and wordlessly took the five dollar bill Dave handed him. 

“Are you, uh, staying today?” Klaus asked, hope evident in his voice. The lack of a briefcase was glaringly obvious to him.  
“Mhm, I got time,” Dave nodded.  
“Cool, cool, you take a seat then!”

As Dave got settled, Klaus turned towards the teas, ignoring Adrian’s pointed look. He reached for the lemon ginger rooibos tea, and steeped a teabag in a pitcher. He pumped a large glass with 2 pumps raspberry, and one lemon, and filled it a third of the way up with club soda. 

After the tea was adequately steeped, he poured it into the glass, leaving just enough room for the ice he’d add in later.

He left the glass on the counter, sternly telling Adrian not to touch, and invaded Kristina’s kitchen to make himself a quick turkey sandwich.

Ella showed up just as the sandwich was on the grill.  
“Hey, you in kitchen today?” she asked, popping her head in.  
“God, I remember the last time I was in kitchen, just like it was two months ago. Good old times. Nah, I’m on break, babe,” Klaus grinned. 

“Was that Dave in the atrium?” Ella asked.  
“Oh? Dave’s here? What good timing for my break!” Klaus said.  
Ella rolled her eyes so hard that Klaus was sure it must have given her a headache.  
“Your sandwich is burning,” Ella said, before walking away to grab a till.

“Shit,” Klaus said, whipping around. He ignored Kristina laughing at him from the corner, and scorched his fingers opening the sandwich so he could put honey dijon on it. 

He left the plate on the staff counter, and filled Dave’s cup up with ice. Satisfied with his own meal, and with Dave’s drink, he grabbed both, and brought them to Dave’s table.

Before Klaus had even gotten to the table, Dave was looking up at him with a blinding smile. Klaus could have sworn his eyes twinkled. 

“Hey,” Dave said simply. “Sorry I haven’t been around the last couple of days. My mom needed some help with her backyard, and I’m monitoring history club after school now.”  
“First, you don’t need to apologize for not coming here. I get paid to be here, you don’t,” Klaus said, sliding into the chair opposite Dave’s. “Second, history club? You’re like… an extra nerd.”

“There’s no denying that fact. Is that mine?” Dave said, gesturing to the iced tea.  
“Hm? Oh, yes, yes. I don’t have a name for it, but I’m sure it’ll taste good!” Klaus said, gently pushing it towards Dave.  
“They always do,” Dave smiled, before taking a sip. “Yep. Delicious. Maybe ‘lemon sunset?’ Since it’s such a pretty colour.”

“I love that. How’d you start monitoring history club? Was that a random assignment or punishment, or a choice?” Klaus asked.  
“Is that your fifth question?” Dave said, tilting his head.  
“What? No! That would be a terrible, throwaway question!” Klaus said.

“Do you have a question then?” Dave laughed.  
“I thought you said the game was childish?” Klaus said.  
“I still played, didn’t I?” Dave said.

“Yeah, you did, you big baby,” Klaus said, and another blush crept up Dave’s neck. They were both silent for a moment while Klaus thought.

“Fine, I give up, I don’t have another question right now. Are you truly a history nerd, or was it an accident?” Klaus said finally. 

“I’m a nerd,” Dave answered. “I minored in history in uni. My grandfather fought in the Vietnam war, which, totally pointless war, by the way, but he used to sit me down when I was really young, and tell me stories about it. It sounded terrible, and awful, but it piqued my interest in learning about the past.”

“That’s adorable. Seriously, like crazy adorable,” Klaus said. Dave blushed deeper than Klaus had ever seen him blushed. And the boy blushed every two seconds. 

“I mean. I don’t. Thank you,” Dave said. “Um. I don’t really remember where we left off, give me a second to think.

Klaus nodded his head and shoved half of his turkey sandwich in his mouth. It should have been disgusting, but Dave smiled slightly at it. 

“Okay, I’ve decided on my question. Have you always been so eccentric?” Dave said. Klaus raised his eyebrow, and Dave immediately tried to backtrack. 

“No, I just mean, like, you wear such beautiful, striking clothing, and your hair is wild, and you wear black lipstick to work, and while you do all of that, you’re so confident. I think I just want to know if you’ve always been that comfortable being you, I guess,” Dave said quickly. 

“I got it, you’re fine,” Klaus said. “I’ve always been comfortable being the way I am, but actually appearing how I wanted to appear was a little more complicated. We had school uniforms, which I worked my way around. 

I managed to swap with my siblings until I only had skirts instead of pants, but I wasn’t allowed to paint my nails or anything until I was out of the house, and after I was out of there, I was living on the streets, so I didn’t really have the luxury to fully, truly embrace what I wanted to be until pretty recently.”

“Wait, school uniforms? Didn’t you say you were home-schooled?” Dave asked.  
“Oh, yeah, yeah, dear old Dad thought it would make us more… professional and complaisant,” Klaus said. 

“Complaisant? In your own home? Why?” Dave said.  
“Uh, uh, uh, it’s not your turn! It’s mine! And I wanna know what your favourite thing about teaching is,” Klaus said, wagging his finger in Dave’s face. 

Dave swatted Klaus’ finger away with a laugh. 

“Fine, I can wait, I’m patient,” Dave said. “I had a really wonderful teacher when I was in school. I had a really rough time growing up, just a lot of misplaced anger and teen angst, you know how it is. I was failing most of my classes, all of them except for English and history, which always came naturally, just because I didn’t care.

This teacher, Ms. Hubbard, sat me down one day, and made me realize that I was better than how I was acting, and after a while, with her help, my grades went up, and I got a lot happier, and became a much better person. 

Once I actually paid attention in class, I realized that I was actually kind of smart. Does that sound conceited? Maybe a little. I was suddenly top of all of my classes, and my English teacher praised the hell out of me daily. She was a huge ego booster. 

I realized that I was actually really awesome at everything academic. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with that, though. And then I thought about how Ms. Hubbard, and honestly, all of my other teachers, too, had turned my life around. I decided I wanted to be like them.

Which is a really long story to tell you that, basically, my favourite part of teaching, is helping my students become their best selves, academically, and personally.”

“Oh, so you’re just like, a really good, smart, well-rounded person, huh? That’s what you’re telling me right now?” Klaus said.  
“No,” Dave laughed. “I’m not perfect. I try to be kind, though.”  
“I think you’re doing a pretty good job with that, then,” Klaus said. 

“You don’t think I’m obnoxious, after telling you a story that’s basically came out sounding like ‘I’m so smart blah blah,” Dave asked.  
“Nah. In fact, I’m happy that you can see your worth. That’s a fantastic trait to have, I’m almost envious,” Klaus said. 

“You don’t see your own worth?” Dave asked.  
“Is that your question?” Klaus asked in return. “See, two can play at that game.”

“You snake. No, my question is… you said something a while back, about your dad not wanting you to be in the public eye? What did you mean by that? And he made you wear school uniforms at home?” Dave said.

“Ah, the questions that stem from an answer. My least favourite kind,” Klaus said.  
“You don’t have to answer, Klaus, if it makes you uncomfortable, or something.”

“No, it’s good! It’s not a secret or anything. Kind of the opposite, actually. Do you know who Reginald Hargreeves is?” Klaus said.  
“The politician?” Dave asked. “He’s kind of a big deal, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s the one. Do you remember that whole publicity stunt, where he fostered a bunch of kids? Where he showed them off like they were shiny cars in public, and then fucked them up at home by being a terrible father, and an all-round terrible person?” Klaus asked.

“Uh,yeah, I remember. I didn’t grow up here so I didn’t hear about it as much, but I definitely remember hearing about it a lot. I remember thinking it was really fucked up,” Dave said.

“Yeah, it was really fucked up,” Klaus nodded softly, his eyes trained on the table.  
“Why… Oh, God, Klaus, were you one of those kids?” 

“Oh, yeah, baby. Me and my siblings,” Klaus said.  
“That actually… explains a lot,” Dave said.  
“Does it?” Klaus laughed, looking up to meet Dave’s eyes.

He’d been expecting to see pity written all over Dave’s face, but there wasn’t any. There was nothing except for the fondness that was always there when he looked at Klaus. 

“Oh, yeah. Makes much more sense than the running theory I had where you were raised by a cult,” Dave said with a smile.  
“Feels like it was close enough, honestly.”

Dave reached across the table, and grabbed Klaus’ hand that had been resting by his empty plate. He ignored the soft ‘oh’ Klaus let out, and squeezed his hand gently. 

“I’m sorry, Klaus. That couldn’t have been an easy childhood,” Dave said softly. 

Klaus glanced down at their hands, and placed his spare hand on top of Dave’s, squeezing back for a moment, before pulling both away. Pulling away almost killed him, but he thought if he held on for much longer, that might have killed him as well. 

“It wasn’t, but who really had a happy childhood, huh? Definitely not the majority of people I know,” Klaus said with a forced huff of a laugh. 

“If it makes you feel any better, I feel like my childhood was happy enough, besides those rough stints I had during early high school. I remember celebrating Hanukkah with my family every year, and those celebrations have always been some of my warmest memories. My dad was my hero, and my mom was lovely, and my sister was a usual bratty kid, but she still loved us through her teen angst years,” Dave said. “I don’t mean to rub my happy childhood in your face, just… maybe something to give you hope. That not every child is doomed.”

“You’re Jewish?” Klaus asked.  
“That’s all you got out of that?” Dave laughed. “Yeah, I am.”  
“That’s cool. I’m glad you had a happy childhood, Davey. One of us deserved to, and I’m glad it was you,” Klaus said.

Dave narrowed his eyes, about to jump back on the ‘what do you mean you don’t know your own worth’ train, when Ella approached the table.

“Klaus, I hate to do this, but your break was up a few minutes ago,” she said, softly, clearly not mad.

“Oh, shit, babe, I’m sorry,” Klaus said, immediately standing up and gathering his plate and Dave’s empty cup.  
“All good, just make sure you’re back in a couple of minutes!” Ella said, taking the dishes from Klaus and heading to the back. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you,” Dave said sheepishly from his chair.  
“No, it’s my fault. I always lose time when I’m talking to you,” Klaus said.  
“Oh…” Dave said, not meeting Klaus’ eye. “I should probably go, anyway.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. We’re at, um, six each, I think,” Klaus said.  
“I think so, too,” Dave said, standing.

The two men stood beside each other for a few moments, neither knowing what to do with themselves. Should they hug goodbye? Shake hands?

Dave settled for awkwardly holding a hand up in a wave and taking a couple steps towards the door, still looking at Klaus. Klaus smiled back, and held up his ‘goodbye’ hand, before turning on his heels for the back. 

By the time he came back out with his apron on, Dave was long gone, but was still on the top of his thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do need to put in a disclaimer that i am not Jewish. i did some research somewhere during chapter 3 on what makes a drink/food kosher and was very very confused, so i really hope there isn't anything in this fic that you cannot frame as kosher. if there's something really wrong in this fic that lines up with dave being jewish, please let me know. 
> 
> other than that, im super happy i have another chapter for you guys and i'm sorry its very dialogue heavy! i hope you enjoyed it! as aaaaaalways, please leave a comment if you feel like it! reading them seriously gives me more motivation to get more chapters out


	12. caramel affogato frappe

Klaus could hear the bickering all the way from the back, where he was doing dishes. Letting out a huff of a laugh, he shook off his hands, wiped them on his apron, and skipped up to the front to meet the partners.

Diego and Patch didn’t even notice Klaus had joined them at first.

“All I’m saying is that you can’t flirt with me in front of a perp, it’s unprofessional,” Patch was saying.  
“You didn’t seem to mind at the time,” Diego said, moving a hand to brush a strand of hair from her face. Patch swatted him away.

“I’m serious, Hargreeves, knock it off,” Patch said. “You’re buying, by the way, for embarrassing me.”  
“Fine, but only because I know how much you make,” Diego said.  
“Yeah, more than you,” Patch said, an eyebrow raised in a challenge. 

Klaus cleared his throat, and the officers finally glanced over at him. Klaus could see the twinkle in Patch’s eye, the telling sign that she wasn’t really mad at his brother. 

“If you’re looking for donuts, you’re in the wrong place,” Klaus said.  
“Fuck you,” Diego said. “Give me a mocha. ‘Dora want’s something different today.”  
“You’re not even going to say please?” Patch said.

“Thank you, Patch! You tell him!” Klaus said, blowing her a kiss. Diego only scowled more.  
“My pleasure. Can I please have a medium caramel latte with skim milk to go?” Patch said.  
“A lady who says everything I need to know without being prompted is a lady after my own heart,” Klaus said as he tapped in her order.

Robin, a newer trainee, made their drinks, while Klaus just leant over the counter, ignoring Diego, to talk to Patch.  
“I’m thinking we do a spa day sometime next week? It’s been way too long, my love,” he said.  
“I’d love that! I’ll text you and we can figure out a day,” Patch said.

“You’re hanging out without me?” Diego said, offended.  
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Klaus said.

Before Diego could argue, Robin called out their drinks, and he sulked over to grab it. Patch shot a wink at Klaus before following her boyfriend.  
“See y'all later!” Klaus waved at them, heading back to the dishpit. 

It was a slow enough evening that Klaus was able to throw himself into the extra mindless tasks that he secretly loved doing. Nothing on the stupid monthly cleaning list, because, man, fuck that list. But just little Klaus things that no one else thinks to do very often, if at all. 

After scrubbing the outside of the dishwasher with a metal scrubbie, Klaus took a long look at the roof of the cafe. It was mostly open, with pipes running along the rafters, since it was a decently old building and the owners liked to embrace the rustic look.

There was an especially large pipe, and Klaus had no idea what it was for. All he knew was that it was dusty.  
“Hey, Charity,” Klaus called, summoning her from the back.

“Yeah?” Charity asked, only sticking her head out of the back. She didn’t like to go out front unless she was delivering food to a table. 

“Do you think I could clean the top of that pipe without breaking my neck?” Klaus asked.  
“No. You’re the clumsiest person I’ve ever met,” Charity said, returning to the kitchen before Klaus could even begin to defend himself. 

Clumsy had been one of Klaus’ top descriptors since he was a kid, and while it was a fair statement, given his long and awkward limbs and extremely impressive ability to trip over his own feet at least twice a day, being called clumsy by anyone except his siblings made him cringe. 

It threw him back to one of the darkest times of his life, which is saying a lot for him. Back to a time when he’d had his jaw wired shut for six weeks, and had had to write on paper to tell his siblings that falling down the stairs hadn’t been an accident. Mr. Hargreeves had spent those six weeks telling his supporters that Klaus was ‘tragically a very clumsy boy,’ while he and his siblings had silently fumed behind him. 

“Whatever, I’ll be fine,” Klaus mumbled to himself, earning an amused look from Robin.  
He grabbed the big ladder they kept in the back, and the extra long feather duster that Ella had been so excited to buy. She loved dusting the top of the high window sills. 

Klaus set up the ladder a little ways from the pipe, not directly under it, so he could maneuver the stick easier, and took a deep breath, before climbing up the rungs to the fifth step up. Robin stayed behind the counter, an anxious look on her face. 

It was lucky no poor souls had chosen to sit in the area, because the dust storm that started to occur was horrendous, much more than Klaus had anticipated. He coughed a little too violently for his own liking, and batted a free hand in front of his face, trying to create some clean air in front of him. 

He leant back a little too far, and felt the ladder begin to lift from the ground underneath him. He barely had time for the thought ‘so this is how I die’ to cross his mind, before the ladder begins to tip past a point of no return.

But instead of sending Klaus to the ground, where he’d meet his demise, the ladder stabilized itself last second. Klaus let out the breath he’d been holding, confused.

“What?” he asked the air, dropping the duster to hold onto the ladder with both hands. It took him a moment to focus.

When he finally looked down, he saw Dave, firmly holding onto the ladder, white knuckles and all. He was smiling, but Klaus could see the minor panic in his eyes. Seeing Dave’s face instantly calmed Klaus down.

“My knight in shining armour,” Klaus said with a warm smile, before beginning his descent. He took it slowly, much slower than needed, but he was always one for dramatics. 

Dave just smiled back, and held the ladder steady while Klaus climbed down. When he was on the second to last step down, Dave reached out a hand, keeping the other on the ladder, and offered it to Klaus. Klaus hesitated just a moment, before grabbing the hand offered to him, and jumping off the last rung.

The two men stared at each other for a moment, close enough that if Klaus took one step forward, he’d be within kissing distance. Dave seemed more confident than usual today. His tell-tale blush was still slowly creeping up his neck, but he didn’t break eye contact, his beautiful blue eyes trained solely on Klaus.

It felt like an eternity before Dave spoke.

“You should be more careful next time, princess,” he said, squeezing Klaus’ hand at the same time for emphasis. 

Klaus was suddenly very aware that they were still holding hands, a fact which had slipped his mind when all he had been thinking about was Dave’s face in kissing distance.

His hand was bigger than Klaus’, and fit into his own perfectly. Softer than they looked, and so very warm and comfortable. 

Klaus glanced down at their hands for a moment too long, and when he looked back up at Dave, he was met with such a fire in those blue eyes that he had to look away again immediately. 

“Yeah, ye- um, care- yeah. Yeah,” Klaus said, finally, nodding dumbly.

Klaus had been rendered speechless only twice in his entire life. The first time was awful. Mr. Hargreeves had just spent an hour berating Klaus for his behavior at a benefit, and had slapped Klaus squarely across the cheek when he’d tried to defend himself. It was a shock to his system, and his mind had shut down for half an hour after that.

The second was a much nicer story. It was the first time he’d woken up in the hospital, saved from an overdose. All six of his siblings were in room, surrounding his bed. Five had been off in a corner, writing in a notebook with his tongue stuck out in concentration. Ben was reading a book in the chair right beside Klaus’ bed, and Vanya and Diego stood nearby, in quiet conversation. Luther and Allison had been playing checkers at a small table at the foot of his bed. 

Klaus had woken up quietly, without any of them noticing, and was absolutely overwhelmed with emotion over the fact that they were all there for him. They were there for him, even though he was in the hospital for something they all hated him for, and fought him about. Even though it was his own fault, and he deserved to be alone, to be isolated, they all showed up. 

Ben had been the first to notice he was awake, and staring at them all with tears in his eyes. It had taken five minutes before Klaus could get out a choked ‘thank you.’ Thank you, for not giving up on me yet. Thank you for still loving me. 

Klaus always had something to say. He never shut up, and his siblings and coworkers pointed out that fact constantly. It had taken those big, defining moments in his life to take his words away for just a few minutes.

And now here’s Dave, holding Klaus’ hand and calling him princess, and Klaus has forgotten every word but ‘yeah’ that he had in his repertoire. He was bilingual, too, so that fact was kind of impressive. 

Dave continued to stand there in silence, his hand still squeezing Klaus’ hand slightly so that he couldn’t forget the pressure was there, staring at Klaus in open fondness and interest. Klaus felt his face grow warm, and became aware that he was probably mortifyingly red. 

A blush. He was blushing. Hard.

“Um, uh, yeah. Careful, next time,” Klaus finally got out. He looked down at their hands again, for just a moment, before pulling away. Dave let his fingers slip out easily, and Klaus almost whined at how empty and cold his hand immediately felt without Dave’s strong palm in his. 

Klaus bent over to pick up the duster, taking a moment to collect himself before turning back at Dave, who was smiling widely, and had a new look in his eyes, one Klaus couldn’t decipher. 

“I should get back there,” Klaus said, gesturing blindly to the counter behind him. “Not my break, and all, you know.”

“Of course. You want my help putting that away?” Dave asked, jerking a thumb at the ladder. 

Klaus bit his lip for just a moment, hesitating. Normally he would have said no, because he was paid to do this, and was too proud to accept help half the time anyway.

But his heart was pounding, hard, and he could swear that his vision was just the tiniest bit fuzzy. Dave was built stronger, anyway. 

“Sure, it just gets tucked in the back,” Klaus said. Together, they collapsed the ladder, and Klaus led Dave to the back, showing him the little crook it hid in. He made a point of ignoring an amused look from Charity while they were back there. 

They went separate ways when they left, Klaus heading behind the counter, and Dave in front, to the cashier. Robin was on bar, making a couple of drinks, and a woman had queued up, just making it in front of Dave.

Klaus had to stop himself from outwardly sighing. He loved his job 95% of the time, but wished that when Dave was around, all other customers would fuck off.

He took her order quickly, a medium latte with almond milk to go, and as soon as she was gone, and his eyes fell on Dave again, his smile turned from customer service to genuine. 

“Can I ask you a question? Off the books” Dave asked, leaning on his elbows on the counter.  
“Sure,” Klaus said, ignoring the little flip his heart did as Dave leaned closer towards him.

“Why didn’t you ask that lady’s name when you took her order?” Dave said. His voice was so low that Klaus had to take a moment to process what he had said. 

And when he’d processed, all he had was “what?”  
“When I first came here, you asked me my name for my order. You never ask anyone else's name, and I never hear names called out, only the drinks,” Dave said.

“Oh. Yeah. Um,” Klaus said, His mind was short circuiting again. Four times in his lifetime, and two were today, induced by a pretty boy. He’d thought about in passing what would happen if Dave ever noticed, and he’d decided on a reasonable excuse. But now, being presented with the question, paired with Dave’s eyes boring into his, Klaus couldn’t even begin to remember the basics of it.

Dave seemed so sure of himself today, like he had woken up able to clearly see Klaus’ crush on him, and now here he was, torturing Klaus like it was nothing. What was his game? Where was this supposed to lead?

Dave was still looking at him, his head tilted to the side. Klaus could feel his face start to heat up again, and wondered dumbly if this was how Dave felt whenever he blushed - lost, embarrassed, happy, and a little turned on. 

It took another long moment for Klaus to collect himself, and Dave let him have it.

“Fine, I crack,” Klaus said finally, still unable to recall his pre-planned excuse. “I just wanted to know your name because I thought you were cute.”

And yeah, there was Dave’s blush, and suddenly Klaus didn’t feel as lost.  
“You thought I was cute?” Dave asked. 

He was still looking at Klaus, though, which wasn’t so much as strange, as just different. Klaus really wondered what had happened to make Dave so much more confident overnight. 

“As hell,” Klaus confirmed.

Dave continued to stare, his face almost blank, and Klaus shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. Was he offended? Creeped out? Disgusted?

“Here,” Dave said, breaking Klaus out of the spiral he had been about to throw himself into. Klaus looked down, at the big beautiful hand he had been holding only a few minutes earlier, and saw Dave was holding a five dollar note.

“Right! Right, yes, yes,” Klaus said, snapping his attention back into his job. If he kept everything professional, maybe he wouldn’t combust. “Staying or going?” He asked, his eyes trained on the screen in front of him.

“Staying, please,” Dave said, and Klaus let out a breath of relief that he didn’t know he’d been holding. 

As always, Dave threw all his change in the tip jar, and took a seat at his usual table, facing Klaus. Seeing to sense Klaus’ discomfort, he pulled out a book and threw his nose into it. 

It wasn’t like Klaus was uncomfortable because Dave was creeping him out or anything. It was more like… he didn’t know how to react to someone showing genuine affection and attraction towards him. 

Pure, untainted positive emotions past a casual friendship (which had only made an appearance very recently) had never been shown to him by anyone besides his siblings in his entire life. It wasn’t an opinion, it was a fact, and it was a fact that Klaus had difficulty believing was being broken. 

Klaus’ discomfort was more for two reasons. The first being, he had no idea how to act when being shown seemingly genuine affection. Making jokes, and hitting someone up just to get down to business, or to get drugs was way easier. It didn’t involve heart flips and blushes, and wondering if you were being led on.

Which was the second reason - Klaus had no idea if this was real or not. Was he making all of this up in his head? Was Dave just a really friendly guy, and didn’t realize he was making Klaus’ world turn on is axis? Or, worse, was he just fucking with Klaus? It wouldn’t be the first or the tenth time. 

Klaus shook that thought out of his head. For his own sanity, he had to believe that Dave, no matter whether he knew how his actions came off, or about Klaus’ feelings, had no sinister ulterior motives. 

He was just finishing up Dave’s drink when Robin appeared by his side. He jumped slightly, never having been good at dealing with jump scares, no matter how miniscule. It occurred to him that he hadn’t seen Robin since he’d stepped foot on the ladder.

“What’cha making?” She asked, glancing at the ticket.  
“Caramel frappe, affogato style for Dave,” Klaus said, as he poured the single shot of espresso on top of the frappe. Robin just watched as he topped it with whipped cream and caramel drizzle. 

“Your boyfriend’s really cute,” she said after a moment, and Klaus nearly dropped the bottle of caramel into the drink.

He coughed a little too violently, and Dave looked up from his book, a look of concern written all over his face. Klaus waved him off, and turned his back to Dave.

“My boyfriend?” Klaus choked out.  
“Yeah, he’s cute,” Robin said.

Klaus considered telling her that they weren’t boyfriends, but instead he simply agreed.

“Yeah, Dave’s really cute.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter went in a totally different direction than i had originally planned, but i like the way it turned out!  
> okay i have a genuine question for you guys - do you like the 20 questions thing, or is it getting a bit old? should i drop it, or continue on with it? i just realized that i'm only up to like 6/20 and we're already up to 12 chapters so i guess i'm mostly wondering if you guys are interested in sticking around if i tough it out and take foreveeeeer to get to question 20


	13. white chocolate chai

Dave sat at his table by the fireplace for hours, flipping the pages of his book every minute or so. Klaus had never been more thankful that business had started to pick up. Serving customer after customer, bouncing from bar to till to dishes, with barely enough time to drink water in between, was a halfway good distraction from the need to stare at Dave. 

In fact, Klaus had almost forgotten about Dave being there, until suddenly they were face to face over the till. Klaus had been so immersed in taking the last couple of orders, the last of the endless stream of customers over the past couple of hours, that he hadn’t even noticed Dave line up.

“Oh!” Klaus said. “Back again?”  
“My drink is long gone,” Dave said. “I was waiting to come up again until it slowed down, but that took forever. Got through a large chunk of my book, though.”

“What are you reading?” Klaus asked. It was the first moment he’d gotten to be able to slow down in a while, and there was no better way to take that much needed breath than talking to Dave.

“Sharp objects. My sister recommended it to me, basically threatened me to read it,” Dave laughed.  
“Oh! I think Ben and I watched that show,” Klaus smiled.  
“I haven’t seen it yet! Maybe I’ll watch it after I finish reading the book,” Dave said.

“You should! Amy Adams is incredible,” Klaus said.  
“I’m sure she is,” Dave said, propping his elbows up on the counter to lean in closer. “You know, you’re incredible to watch while working, too. Like you have this flow, and have so much pep while talking to customers, and so much style while making drinks.”

So Dave had been watching him. Klaus’ face flushed red just at the thought.

“Stalker, much?” Klaus said, hoping it came out as easily as he intended it to.  
“A little, but hopefully not in a creepy way,” Dave said with a soft smile.

“Hey, I’ve had creepy stalkers before, and I’d take you over any of them any day,” Klaus said.  
“That’s… extremely concerning,” Dave said, but he didn’t question him. “Do you think I can have something hot to drink?”

Klaus stared blankly at him. 

“You want what?” Klaus asked after a beat.

Dave laughed loudly, and Klaus was sure that he’d never heard a prettier sound in his life.

“I know, I know. There’s just something about reading that makes me want to curl up with a warm drink, you know? And it’s not that nice out today anyway,” Dave said. 

“I think you’re just trying to keep me on my toes,” Klaus laughed.

Dave smiled, nodding so slightly that Klaus was sure he’d imagined it. 

“Uh, it’s on the house. I forgot to give you a stamp card and I’m sure you’ve had more than enough by now,” Klaus said. 

“Oh. Thank you, darlin’,” Dave said, taking a five dollar note and putting the whole thing in the tip jar. Klaus barely noticed the generous tip over his mind short-circuiting at being called ‘darling.’

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, no problem, it’s all good, I’ll bring it to you, I think,” Klaus said.

Dave just smiled warmly and took his seat. Klaus was halfway through steaming a pitcher of milk when Adrian finally arrived for his late start. 

“Hey, Klaus. You’re the 3:30 - close, right?” Adrian asked, tying his apron behind his back. 

“That’s me. It’s us and Charity closing, right?” Klaus asked, even though he knew the answer already.

“Yup. It’s your break then, and Charity’s after you get back,” Adrian said. “I can finish the drink if you like.”

“Oh, no, no, no, I got it, I got it,” Klaus said, moving his body as if to shield the pitcher of steamed milk.

Adrian raised an eyebrow in confusion, but the look on his face quickly grew into amusement. His eyes left to roam the cafe, until they landed on Dave, and he grinned smugly. 

“You’re a mess, Hargreeves,” Adrian said, and Klaus growled at him. “Finish doing whatever you’re doing, and take your break.”

Klaus grumbled after him, sticking his tongue out at Adrian’s back. Neither of them were technically the boss over the other, but Adrian liked to take on the role when Ella wasn’t around. 

It reminded Klaus a lot of Luther when they were kids, always trying to be the leader when no one gave him that role. Klaus thought too fondly of both Luther and Adrian for any actual hatred to stem from that. 

Klaus poured the milk into a cup, and peered down at it, frowning. It looked too plain. After a moment, he grabbed the caramel drizzle bottle and drew a squiggle down the left side of the cup, running the end of the temp stick through it so it looked like a line of messy hearts.

Before he could chicken out, he drew a small circle in the empty side of the cup, and ran the stick through it, once, top to bottom. It left him with a very obvious heart.

It shouldn’t mean anything, really. Hearts were the only kind of latte art Klaus was any good at. No matter how much Ella tried to teach him, Rosetta's were just absolutely not happening. But after a couple of months, he managed to get the hang of pouring hearts in his lattes.

And drawing hearts with chocolate sauce on top of peoples mochas and hot chocolates was an easy cheat way to look like he was better at the art than he actually was. Plus, he got a kick out of waiting antsy businessmen wait an extra moment for their latte while he took his time drawing a heart for them. 

But this was Dave, and hearts meant everything. 

Klaus was just about to pour the drink out and start all over, when he looked over and caught Dave staring at him. Dave poked out his tongue quickly, and with a quick embarrassment, Klaus realized his own tongue had been sticking out in thought. 

His eyes eyes widened and he whipped his tongue back in his mouth at lightning speed. Dave laughed, and Klaus could hear it from across the room.

“Ugh,” Klaus said out loud to himself, picking up the drink to make his way to Dave’s table. 

Dave hummed softly when Klaus put the drink down, and smiling when Klaus told him he’d be right back.

Klaus popped behind the counter and stole a blueberry muffin from the baked display, making a mental note to pay for it later, and slid into the seat opposite Dave.

“So, what am I drinking?” Dave asked. He’d already taken a couple of sips, but the hearts were still mostly intact. 

“A white chocolate chai with caramel drizzle,” Klaus said. “You like it? I knew a guy once who’d get sick if he had hot beverages, he could only drink iced lattes and teas. You’re not like that, are you?”

“No, I’m not like that,” Dave laughed. “Just felt like being cosy. There’s something about a warm drink that ignites that feeling in me. I think it’s a childhood thing.”

“Like you had hot drinks when you were a kid?” Klaus asked.

“Yeah. My mom used to make me hot chocolates when I was sad, and tea when I was sick. Even as I got older, I’d just be in my room doing homework and she’d bring me something. Apple cider, sometimes coffee, whatever,” Dave said. “If I came home upset about something, I’d never tell her, but she always knew, and would bring me a hot chocolate as her way of letting me know she was there.”

Klaus didn’t mean to gape, but that was such a wonderful childhood memory that it almost brought him to tears.

“Are you okay, Klaus?” Dave asked after a moment of Klaus not saying anything.

“Yeah, yeah, oh yeah,” Klaus said quickly. “It’s just hard to picture.”

“I know you had a very… different childhood, but did you really have nothing that soft?” Dave asked.

“We did, for just a little while. We had a nanny. Grace. She was really sweet. She looked after us, tried to, uh, minimize the amount of shit Reggie would lay on us best she could,” Klaus said. He averted his eyes, looking down at the table as he spoke.

“She got fired pretty quick. He didn’t want a nanny that actually liked us, just one who made sure we were in bed on time. Diego’s got really close with her though, and they’re in contact again. They get tea sometimes. I saw her a couple of months ago and cried like a baby in her arms. Five made fun of me, but I saw him tear up, too.”

“She sounds wonderful,” Dave said softly. He ducked his head lower, staring at Klaus, until the other man looked back up at him. “I’m glad you at least had her, for even just a moment.”

“Yeah, me too,” Klaus said, and either of them could say anything else, they were both distracted by an older woman gasping, scandalized.

Klaus and Dave shot each other confused looks, and it took Klaus a moment to zone in on what had shocked her so badly. Klaus had turned the radio up a couple of hours ago, and left it on Mika radio. ‘Fuck you’ by Lily Allen had just started playing, very certainly uncensored. 

Adrian was busy with customers, and obviously hadn’t tuned in yet.

“You think you should change that?” Dave asked, his eyes dancing with amusement.

“I should, but, ugh, this is such a good song,” Klaus said. The lady turned to look at him, and Klaus could see her about to open his mouth with that ‘excuse me, do you work here, I know you do’ look that customers liked to throw he and his coworkers while they were on breaks. 

“Fine, fine,” Klaus said, waltzing to the back to grab the phone. He threw on Disco Fever, one of his favourite playlists. The fact that he knew Dave liked disco had absolutely nothing to do with his decision. 

“Disco? Just what I needed,” Dave smiled.

“Hey, wanna hear a nerdy fact. Or rant?” Klaus asked, immediately regretting asking.

“Of course,” Dave said, settling back into his chair. Well. There was no taking that back.

“Okay, so. I have no idea of the dates because who the fuck can remember numbers. But in the early 70’s, it was only the radio DJ’s who really had control over what was popular. They were the ones who picked what to play, and what not to play, and then everyone bought records of what they knew, right? Which was just what played on the radio. And America is mostly a rock nation, so it was really just rock at the time.”

“So the radio DJ’s had monopoly?” Dave asked.

“Yeah, yeah, they did. And then disco started getting really popular in clubs, because it’s dance music. Rock is harder to dance to past just like… jumping up and down, so. They played a lot of disco in clubs, even started clubs just dedicated to disco. And that led to people knowing more songs than just what played on the radio. They started buying disco records and listening to stuff that the radio DJ’s weren’t promoting, and they got piiiiissed.”

“They sound like assholes,” Dave said. He was leaning back comfortably in his chair, mug held between both hands. Klaus had his undivided attention.

“They were! Totally! I mean, I’m sure some played disco, but overall, yeah. Anyway, the radio DJ’s were pissed because their power was being taken away, and the disco artists were pissed because they weren’t getting any airplay, and it was just a whole thing. This built up, and eventually the radio DJ’s had enough.”

“And they killed disco, right?”

“Yeah! The bastards. They organized disco demolition night. It was a baseball game, I think, and they had this promotion where if you brought a disco record, you got in for super cheap. So like a crap ton of people, like over 50 thousand showed up with records, and during half time, the organizers set blew them all up in the middle of the field.”

“Shit.”

“Right? And then half the people who attended like, stormed the field and it ended up turning into a riot. They couldn’t even finish the game because the field was so damaged and people were going crazy. Disco never recovered. It really, truly was the night disco died.”

“So disco was killed just because some men were mad they lost their power?” Dave asked.

“Yeah, yeah. I mean, disco is pro everything those men hated, right? It’s pro black, pro women, pro gay, pro fun. But you wanna know the real kicker?” Klaus said.

“Of course,” Dave said, leaning in like Klaus was about to tell him a life-changing secret. 

“MTV came along like a year or two later, and all of a sudden they were the ones who controlled what got played and what people listened to.”

“Disco died for nothing?” Dave asked.

“Disco died for nothing!” Klaus repeated loudly. The lady beside them shot him a warning look. 

“So, you’re a real nerd, too, huh.It’s really impressive you have that info ready to go,” Dave laughed. 

“I pick up a lot things. Stories, languages, hobbies. A lot easier since I got sober, too. I heard that story while I was in rehab, and fact checked it when I got out,” Klaus said. “A lady in there taught me to knit too, and she almost cried when I gave her a beanie on my last day.”

“You’re like a sponge,” Dave said.

“I guess?” Klaus laughed.

“Can I ask number… seven?” Dave said. Klaus nodded, opening his arms in invitation. 

“Why did you go to rehab? What made you decide to get sober?” Dave asked.

It definitely hadn’t been what Klaus was expecting.

“Oh. My brothers, I guess.” Klaus said. Dave didn’t say anything - he was clearly waiting for more detail, if Klaus was willing to give it. “I didn’t really care much about my life, you know? I didn’t live very... desirably, but I chose that. I spent any money given to be on drugs instead of food or shelter.” 

He didn’t mention selling himself for drugs as well, and he didn’t plan on it. 

“All of my siblings tried to push me into rehab, because they cared more than I did, but I was too dependent to even think about it. Then my brother, Ben, the one I live with, got in a really bad accident. He was in a coma, and when he woke up, he made it his life’s freaking mission to get me into rehab,” Klaus said. His tone lightened when he talked about Ben.

“Ben and Diego ganged up on me, held an intervention, physically forced me into rehab, and came up with a plan on what to do with me while I was gone for when I got out. Plan basically involved me never ever being alone for a couple of months, moving in with Ben, and being bullied by Diego.”

“They must really care for you, to go through all that trouble,” Dave said.

“They do, even though they’re assholes most of the time. Well, not Ben. You’d probably like him the most. He’s smart like you, but not a dick about it, like Five is,” Klaus said. 

“I’ll have to meet him, then,” Dave said, and Klaus blushed at the implication. 

“Definitely, yeah. Okay, my question is, uuuuuuum,” Klaus said, looking around at the paintings on the walls, as if they’d give him inspiration. He thought about talking to Dave 24/7, but thinking of something good enough to ask was always hard.

“Why did you enlist?” Klaus asked finally. He didn’t want to trigger Dave, but there was so much he didn’t know about that portion of his life. They’d spoken about it briefly, but Dave normally spoke about his childhood, and then skipped over to the last couple of years. “I know you said it was because they’d pay for your schooling, but is that it?”

“You know, I thought that was it at the time, but I can look back now and see that it wasn’t. I enlisted because I was lost, and angry, and scared. Which are all terrible emotions to go into war with. I hadn’t decided on being a teacher yet, that was something that occurred to me while I was overseas, I just knew I wanted to study something eventually. So I fought, with the idea that when I came back, I’d be different, and would know what to do with my life. 

“I guess I did figure out what I wanted to do, and got my degree eventually, but I would have done all that without touring, I think. So all I really came back with was PTSD and a guilty conscience,” Dave said.

While Dave talked, Klaus watched the raw emotion roll over his face, taking in the way his posture changed, straightened out while he talked about serving, the pain that etched itself into his eyes. He hated himself for a moment, for asking, and opening that gate, but Dave had spoken so earnestly that he was glad he’d asked. 

“You know, last time we talked about this, I said I wasn’t sure if it was worth it. I’ve thought about that a lot since then, and it wasn’t. It wasn’t worth it,” Dave said. His fingers tapped anxiously on his almost empty mug.

Klaus reached out, and wrapped his hands about both the mug, and Dave’s hand, pressing it down to stop tapping. Dave’s hand was warm against the tea, and Klaus had forgotten just how soft his hands were. He stroked a thumb against the back of Dave’s palm for a moment before pulling back. Dave was still staring at the mug, his eyebrows furrowed. 

“What do you do in your free time? For fun?” Dave asked suddenly, not looking up.

“Oh! I, uh, not much, to be honest. I see my siblings a lot, sometimes when Allison is filming in the area, I act as an extra. Ben and I watch a lot of movies, and I get lunch with my coworkers sometimes. I have all my hobbies, too. I cook when I can, but I haven’t done a lot of that recently. I still knit, and I started embroidering. I paint and draw, too” Klaus said. “Which, okay, that’s a lot more than I thought I did. I’m pretty good at chemistry, too, so I home experiments occasionally which drives Ben crazy.”

“So you’re just a really good, smart, well-rounded person?” Dave said, throwing Klaus’ words back at him.

“Nuh! That describes you, not me!” Klaus said, pouting. “What about you, huh? I’m gonna throw away my question, because I can already tell that you like, rate movies like it’s your job, huh? Write rotten tomato reviews like your life depends on it?”

“Ha, ha, very funny. I do write the occasional academic essay focused on films, thank you very much. But I also hike a lot. I like bouldering and abseiling, when I can. I’m a pretty decent baker, too. I started binding books recently,” Dave said.

“You’re kidding,” Klaus grinned.

“Nope. Botched a couple of books, but the last one I made turned out pretty decent. I go to the little film festivals they have around here pretty often, too,” Dave said.

“God, your tinder profile must be killer,” Klaus laughed.

“It was. I deleted tinder recently, like a couple of weeks ago,” Dave said. “Figured I didn’t need it.”

“That’s pretty cocky of you,” Klaus said, choosing to ignore the implications of that sentence. He refused to be so conceited as to believe it was because of him that Dave had deleted the app. 

“Question nine. There’s another film festival coming up this Wednesday. Just a bunch of university film majors screening their short films, so it’ll probably be terrible with a couple good ones scattered in. Do you want to go with me? If you’re not working” Dave asked. 

“Like, with you?” Klaus asked, dumbfounded.

“Yes, with me,” Dave laughed. 

Klaus stared at Dave, trying to find any part of him that said ‘I’m joking, I don’t actually want to hang out with you, you disgust me,’ but there was nothing there. Only fondness, and eagerness. 

“Okay, uh, question nine, real quick, real quick. Like as a date?” Klaus asked, before he could even think about it. He cringed as soon as he said it. If it wasn’t like a date then Dave was going to think he was creepy and presumptuous and would stop coming into the cafe and talking to Klaus.

“Yeah, as a date,” Dave said, his warm eyes staring right into Klaus’, unwavering, but his finger had started tapping again. It occurred to Klaus that Dave was probably just as nervous asking as Klaus was answering, probably even more so. 

“Yes. Please. Yes, I’d love to,” Klaus said. Dave smiled widely, and Klaus did his best to commit that expression. He wanted to draw it later.

Adrian coughed a couple of times, loudly enough to be heard from behind the counter, and Klaus turned back to glare at him.

“Give me a minute,” he said, scowling. He turned back to Dave.

“I have to get back, but, uh, I’ll probably see you before then, and we can plan out the details,” Klaus said.

“Of course,” Dave said. “But, here, one sec.”

Dave ripped a scrap of paper from a notebook in his back and quickly scribbled a number on it. 

“Just in case,” he said, handing it to Klaus, who was trying not to explode. He’d gotten Dave’s number. And was asked out on a date. It had to be a fever dream. 

“Thank you,” Klaus said, taking it, along with Dave’s empty mug. Before he could melt in front of Dave, he scurried to the back to let out a muffled scream into his hands. 

Dave was just packing up his stuff to leave when Klaus came back out, the piece of paper with Dave’s number safely tucked into his bag, and his apron on, tied at the front. 

Dave smiled warmly at him, waving a little, before heading out. Klaus all but collapsed onto the back counter with a fairytale sigh.

Adrian eyed him up and down before groaning. 

“You’re gonna be useless for the rest of the shift, aren’t you?” Adrian asked.

“Yup. I’m in dreamland right now, can’t work, sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some notes!!
> 
> thank you all for your responses to my question last chapter! i've taken them all into consideration and i appreciate that uo all took the time to answer me!
> 
> and with disco demolition night - i've done my own research into it before, but klaus' speech was mostly based off of something i heard! my best friends dad is a DJ specifically for disco and is very popular as in sells out stadiums popular lol, and most of that info comes from stuff he's told us!
> 
> please comment if u enjoyed this and leave a kudos if u havent!!


	14. orange juice

As usual, Ben was waiting for Klaus with dinner ready when he stumbled through the door just past midnight. Ben looked up sharply. Klaus was always clumsy, but sometimes Klaus could see his siblings looking at him carefully, to see if he’d slipped up. 

Klaus guessed he passed the assessment, because Ben just sighed fondly, standing up to put their plates together. 

“Brother dearest, I’ve just had the best day of my entire life,” Klaus said, collapsing onto the couch, throwing his legs over the top, his head brushing the floor. 

“Better than that time Allison bought us all tickets to that waterpark, and Luther got stuck halfway down your favourite slide?” Ben asked, placing a plate piled high with chicken, rice, and roasted veggies on the couch next to Klaus.

Klaus stuck up his nose at the broccoli, but both he and Ben knew he’d eat it with no complaints. Swinging up to sit like a regular human, he took the warm plate onto his lap.

“Yeah, that was a good day, wasn’t it,” Klaus said, almost wistfully. He’d laughed so hard he’d almost peed himself. 

“But not as good as today?” Ben asked, shoving a piece of chicken in his mouth. 

Klaus had no idea how Ben had the self control to wait til late so often to eat with him, but it was much appreciated. Klaus liked to think he’d have the same restraint, but he knew he never could if the situations were reversed. He’d probably end up eating two dinners per night so he could still eat with Ben, though.

“Dave asked me on a date,” Klaus said as casually as he could manage. As if it wasn’t the event of the century for him. 

“Wait, what?” Ben asked, a forkful of chicken and rice stopping and hovering just before his mouth.

“Yeah, yeah, apparently I’m just as desirable and irresistible as I originally thought,” Klaus laughed softly. He just never thought he’d be able to draw in someone who wasn’t another crackhead. 

“You’re sure it’s a date, and he didn’t just ask you to hang out?” Ben asked.

“Yes! I asked!” Klaus said. “Do you think I should call Allison and tell her? Vanya? They’ll be so happy, we haven’t had proper girl talk in ages.”

“Maybe call them when it’s not midnight. Both of them will skin you alive,” Ben said. He’d finally resumed his eating, and stopped staring at Klaus like he’d grown a second head. “You’re sure this guy is actually nice? And not just using you?”

“Yeah, I’m positive. Every bone in his body screams ‘I’m nice’ and I know I’m not always the best judge of character, but it’s hard to bullshit me like that when I’m sober,” Klaus said. He took a mouthful of chicken. “This is really good, by the way.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth open. You disgust me,” Ben said. 

“What about Dave? Should I call him?” Klaus asked, swallowing.

“What?” Ben asked.

“Yeah, he gave me his number. Is it too late to call? Or to text? Should I wait a few days? Or should I text him immediately so he knows I’m interested?” Klaus asked.

“Well, you definitely shouldn’t call him right now. Text either, probably. But don’t wait, because you’re probably gonna end up seeing him tomorrow. Text him when you wake up tomorrow. If he likes you, then he probably won’t mind your clingy ass,” Ben said.

“Who said he likes me?” Klaus asked.

“You did.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Klaus, he asked you out on a date that is for sure a date, and gave you his number. He’s been stopping by your cafe to see you every day, and leaves as soon as your break is over every time.”

“Okay, okay, yeah, but that could still just be him being nice. Pitying me, you know?” Klaus said. 

“Are you… I can’t even handle you right now. You’re worse than Vanya,” Ben said, staring pointedly at the roof. 

“Don’t you dare say that,” Klaus gasped in mock indignation.

“I’ll say it, and I won’t take it back,” Ben said, sticking his tongue out at Klaus.

“You asshole. Wanna watch Sharp Objects?” Klaus said.

“Again, already? Nah, we should watch the Girl on the Train. I just finished reading it,” Ben said. He turned on the T.V, and Klaus could see he’d already had it queued up. 

“Ugh, fine,” Klaus said, settling back into the couch deeper. “But next time, we’re watching Shark Tale.”

They ate mostly in silence for the rest of dinner, both of their attention turned fully onto the movie. It was past two am by the time they split off for bed, Ben yawning dramatically. Klaus wasn’t tired at all yet, though. He was still too far wired from his day. 

Stripping all of his clothes away, he thought bitterly back to his coworkers calling the fact that he probably slept naked. Klaus liked the fact that he was pretty unpredictable, but he seemed to be losing that sense of himself the longer he stayed sober.

Or maybe it was just that he was spending more time around the same people, rather than just bouncing between strangers every couple of days, and was no longer a kid with those childish erratic impulses.

He plopped down on his bed so hard that he half expected Ben to run in to see if he was okay. He stilled for a moment, waiting for a knock on his door, but relaxed when it never came. 

In an effort to distract himself from the extremely strong urge to call Dave, Klaus set about doing his nightly routine. 

He’d cleansed before heading to his room, and now pulled his bedside drawer out, revealing a mess of things. After rifling through a sudoku book, a couple of condoms, and a dog whistle, he proudly pulled out his toner and cotton pads.

Skin care was something he’d gotten into thanks to Allison. She’d thought it would be good to have a routine after getting sober, and her nighttime routine was something she knew how to pass on. Most of his skin care products were vaguely expensive, having been gifted to him by his sister.  
After a search much longer than it should have been, Klaus rubbed eye cream under his eyes, followed by lip balm. He pulled out his moisturizer and smothered his face with the silky mixture, patting his cheeks happily. 

Last check on the routine was taking one of his antidepressants. 120mg of Seroquel popped into his mouth and swallowed dry. It was kind of nice, almost a nostalgic moment of every night for him, popping a pill. For nights when his cravings were bad, Ben kept extra vitamins so Klaus could swallow something. It barely helped, but it was nice the intention was there.

After finishing, there was nothing more to keep his mind off of Dave. While being amazing, the day had ended up being very overwhelming, and he was scared that if he started thinking too much, he’d only spiral. 

Deciding he couldn’t sleep in silence, Klaus connected to his bluetooth speaker and put on his ‘soft ariana’ playlist. He was the type of person who had no less than 80 specific playlists ranging from ‘these songs make me feel ferel’ to ‘if I were an angsty emo kid still in high school’ to ‘these songs make me feel like I’m the prince of a medieval fantasy land where magic is real and there’s lots of bogs nearby.’ 

Finally, Klaus put his phone down on his nightstand, and turned away from it, willing himself to close his eyes and keep them that way. He lasted approximately thirty seconds, before throwing himself around in his bed, ending up at the edge, his face close to his phone.

Biting his lip, Klaus decided there was nothing wrong with getting up to put Dave’s number in his phone. He wouldn’t text him yet, just put his number in their for later. He couldn’t risk losing the piece of scrap paper with it on there, could he? If he waited all night, a ghost might steal it while he slept. 

Softly padding across his room where he’d dropped his bag, he settled back on his bed cross legged, and grabbed his phone.

“Shit,” he said quietly when the bright screen of his phone almost blinded him. “That was disgusting,” he mumbled, putting his phone on night mode and dragging the brightness all the way down. 

He took his time putting Dave’s number in his contacts, making sure he got every number right, quadruple checking it was correct, before putting the paper away in his bedside drawer for safe keeping. 

He put Dave’s name in as ‘Davey’ but had to stop himself from doing anything else cheesy, like adding emojis to the name, or setting a cute picture as his contact photo, just in case Dave ended up seeing it. Klaus didn’t want to come off any creepier than he already had. 

After pressing save, Klaus just stared down at the contact for a long moment. It was nearing three by now, and all of Klaus’ good judgement went out the window by one am. 

He should probably listen to Ben, he thought. But Ben was half of his impulse control, and he was long asleep by now. 

Only hesitating a moment longer, Klaus began to type out a message. He really had no idea what he wanted to say. ‘Hi?’ ‘Hope your day is good?’ ‘Will you marry me?’

No, that was all stupid. ‘Do you get drinks in the morning, or only when I’m working?’ Klaus wondered if Dave came by on his days off. He hadn’t thought to ask his coworkers, and Ella had only mentioned it a couple of times. 

Klaus deleted message after message, finally settling on _‘Just so you know, I’m not working Wednesday night.’_ It was a miracle he wasn’t actually already scheduled, but he would have figured out a way to make it anyway, even if he had to sell his soul to Adrian in exchange for covering his shift. 

Letting out a deep breath, Klaus hit send before he could obsess over it any longer, and end up sending an even more embarrassing message.

To his extreme surprise, the three bubbles of typing popped up almost immediately. Klaus let out an involuntary gasp, and had to refrain himself from throwing his phone across the room. 

**Dave:**

_‘Good to know! Why are you still awake?’_

**Klaus:**

_‘I only got off work like three hours ago, you really expect me to be asleep already? Why aren’t YOU asleep? You’re a teacher don’t you have to be at work by like 6 am?’_

**Dave:**

_‘More like 8 am, but it’s a Saturday’_

**Klaus:**

_‘Oh is it?? You lose track of time when u work a min wage job and also when you just don’t care’_

**Dave:**

_‘I barely even know when it’s the weekend, and considering my job, that’s impressive, so I can give you some slack’_

_‘I should probably try and get some sleep though. Do you work tomorrow?’_

Klaus almost squealed into his pillow. Dave wanted to know if he was working tomorrow, presumably so he would know if he had to stop by or not. 

**Klaus:**

_‘I do! I start at 5’_

**Dave:**

_‘See you tomorrow, then. Goodnight Klaus x’_

Klaus didn’t even reply. Somehow he knew Dave would be okay with that, that he wouldn’t be laying there expecting a reply.

Instead, he spent the next hour staring at the ‘x’ next to his name before finally passing out, Ariana Grande playing softly in the background.

He woke up to Ben knocking on his door, the smell of bacon wafting through the vents.

“-and waffles,” Ben was saying. Klaus groaned, disgruntled at being woken up so early when he’d stayed up so late. He didn’t even know the time, but he knew it was too early. Even by his early riser standards.

It was too late now, though. After waking up, Klaus always found it impossible to fall back asleep. His options were to either get up, or just lay in bed alone and awake for a few hours. And the bacon and waffles smelt too good to ignore.

Throwing on a silky purple robe, Klaus hugged himself while walking into the kitchen, still blinking sleep out of his eyes. Klaus made a mental note of the time on the oven, just past 6 am, and tucked that away to grumble about to Ben later.

He was surprised to see Diego and Vanya sitting at the dinner table, plates of waffles stacked high in front of each of them.

“Diego, I didn’t know you were capable of getting out of bed before three in the afternoon,” Klaus said in way of greeting, sliding into a chair opposite Vanya. He shot her the warmest smile he could muster up.

Ben slid a plate of waffles and bacon in front of him, and Vanya nudged over the maple syrup, and suddenly the warm smile felt a lot less fake. 

“Ha, ha, asshole. Vanya and I haven’t slept yet,” Diego said. “Ben was already awake when I texted him so we came over.

“That doesn’t help your case, bro. You’re gonna crash in a couple of hours and sleep until six, and then Patch is gonna dump your disaster of an ass,” Klaus said, pouring an obscene amount of syrup over his waffles. 

“Shut up,” Diego said sharply, but there was no heat to it. 

“What are you doing out so late, anyway?” Klaus asked.

Vanya and Diego exchanged sheepish looks, and Klaus leaned forward in interest. Ben slid into the last chair, ignoring the conversation in order to tuck into his own breakfast. 

“Well now you have to tell me,” Klaus said.

There was another long moment of silence, Diego and Vanya communicating silently. Klaus just let them. Growing up so close in a household where they weren’t allowed to speak up much, they all learned how to read each other, and their silent conversations were just as important as their verbal ones. 

“We were playing a gig,” Vanya said, finally.

“I’m sorry, a what?” Klaus asked. Ben smiled into his food. 

“A gig. We’re in a band. I play guitar, Diego plays bass, his friend Bo plays drums., and we all sing,” Vanya clarified. 

“Okay, I have a thousand questions. Since when? What kind of music? Why didn’t I know? Can I come to your next show? Are you any good? What are you called? And lastly, what the fuck?” Klaus said. 

“Calm down,” Ben laughed. 

“Also, am I the last to know?” Klaus exclaimed, gesturing to Ben. “Because if so, I’m gonna be so pissed.”

“Jesus,” Diego said, running his hand down his face. “Only the two of you know so far, just because we wanted to actually be good before anyone knew. And we’re good now, so.”

“We’re punk rock, the Prime-8’s,” Vanya said. “It’s a fun break from my classical studies.”

Klaus just stared at the two of them, eyes wide and mouth dropped. 

“Klaus,” Ben said, poking him in the side.

“You’re fucking with me,” Klaus said, squinting.

“Nope,” Diego said nonchalantly. 

“This is the best thing to ever happen to me, and I’m gonna need you to get us all tickets to your next gig. Oh, and also maybe an extra guest ticket for me, I think, maybe,” Klaus said.

“Like you’ll have a plus one?” Vanya asked.

“Yes!” Klaus squealed excitedly. “I wanted to call you last night, but Ben figured you’d be asleep. Turns out he was astronomically wrong because you were shredding guitar in a PUNK band, but whatever.”

He shot a pointed look at Ben, who just rolled his eyes and kept eating. 

“You’re invited to the next show, I promise!” Vanya said. “Why’d you wanna talk to me?”

“Dave asked me on a date!” Klaus all but shouted. 

“Klaus! That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you,” Vanya said. She reached across the table to squeeze Klaus’ hand quickly. 

“That’s the guy who was stalking you, right?” Diego asked.

“What? No! He’s the guy who just happened to be in the cafe and is a friend of mine and was looking at your dumb latex ass,” Klaus said.

“Okay, as long as you’re safe about it,” Diego conceded. He was fair to have his suspicious - Klaus didn’t have a very good relationship track record thus far. 

“Yeah, yeah, first date always in a public place, never accept drugs that might be cut… okay, any drugs or drinks at all, make sure my phone is fully charged. I know the drill. But Dave is a good person,” Klaus said. “I really, really like him. He might even like me, maybe.”

“He asked you on a date, so I’m assuming he likes you,” Vanya said. She was still beaming.

“That’s the conclusion you’d think Klaus would have come to, but he’s a dumbass,” Ben said, standing. “Does anyone want orange juice? Coffee?”

They all put their orders in, and a few moments later Klaus was graciously accepting a cup of orange juice from Ben. 

“Okay, wait. Why do you think he asked you out on a date, then, if it’s not because he likes you?” Vanya asked. 

“Don’t get him started,” Ben groaned.

“Because he pities me! He found out about my childhood and my… life a couple of years ago and now he wants to make me feel better. Or he gets a kick out of going out with with a Hargreeves. Or because his friends dared him too, or, I don’t know, there’s a thousand explanations,” Klaus said. 

“And you expect us to be okay with you going on a date with him if you think all of that?” Diego asked.  
“Okay, I don’t really think that. It’s just easier to picture than the alternative,” Klaus said.

“Which is?” Ben prompted, despite the fact that Klaus was pretty sure he already knew the answer.  
“That he just… likes me,” Klaus said.  
“Why is that so hard to picture?” Vanya asked.

“Because, I’m… me. I don’t know. I’m an addict, a depressed, anxiety ridden disaster. I’m a complete mess, I don’t really have anything going for me, I’m twenty-three and have no degree or anything, just a server job,” Klaus said.

“It’s hard to believe he likes you, because you don’t like you, right?” Vanya said carefully. 

Klaus nodded slightly, looking down at his empty plate, avoiding eye contact with his siblings. He could feel Diego shift uncomfortably near him. While he tried his best, something Patch had been helping him do, Diego had never been very good with dealing with his own emotions, let alone anyone else's. 

“Klaus, I’ve been there. You know I’ve been there,” Vanya said, her voice softly hesitant. “Life doesn’t get any better until you start realizing that you have worth. And you have so, so much worth. I still struggle with my own self-hatred, trust me, I know it’s not an overnight change. It’s something you have to work for. But, while you’re working on loving yourself, you have to believe that other people can see that worth that you can’t see.”

Klaus didn’t answer, just stared down at his plate, tears welling in his eyes. It was far too early in the morning to be getting inspirational speeches from his sister. 

“You know we love you, right, Klaus?” Ben said, nudging his side again. Klaus quickly wiped his nose with the sleeve of his robe. Diego just nodded, avoiding eye contact as well. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know,” Klaus said quickly, wiping his eyes. He always was an easy crier. “Can we stop talking about this now? Can we go back to the back that the two of you are in a punk rock band?”

“Sorry, bro, we should probably head out now. We only stopped by to force Ben to make us breakfast. Eudora’s gonna be waking up soon and I wanna get to hers, and I’m sure Vanya’s close to crashing,” Diego said.

Vanya hummed in agreement, gathering their dishes and stacking them in the sink. Ben followed her to help, leaving Diego alone with Klaus.

Diego shuffled his feet awkwardly before letting out a groan and taking a sleep closer to Klaus.

“Vanya’s right, bro. Just because you hate yourself doesn’t mean everyone else does,” Diego said, practically whispering, like he didn’t want the others to know that he was saying something sensitive. 

“How’s Patch?” Klaus asked, deflecting. Diego narrowed his eyes, and Klaus was saved by Vanya and Ben joining them again. 

“Should we go?” Vanya said, handing Diego his keys.  
“Yeah,” Diego said, shoulder checking Klaus as gently as a shoulder check should be, and nodding at Ben as he slipped out the door. 

Vanya stopped to hug Klaus, whispering in his ear.  
“Go on your date, and have fun. If he asked you, it’s because he likes you, I promise,” she said. 

After giving Ben a quick hug, she paused, half way through the door. “Make sure you tell Allison before the actual date, too.”

“I will, I will! Go, Diego’s too impatient for this,” Klaus said, gently pushing her out.

Leaning his back against the door, Klaus glared Ben down. “It is so, very early.”

“Klaus, you’d be up by now anyway. And I made you waffles,” Ben said.

Klaus sighed. Ben had many good points.

“Fine. I forgive you. Barely,” Klaus said, pouting. 

“You work today?” Ben asked, ushering Klaus onto the couch, sitting down beside him.

“Yuh, I start at five,” Klaus said, leaning on Ben’s shoulder. 

“Have you been listening to Ariana Grande again?” Ben asked, peering around to squint at Klaus.

“Yuh. You wanna go to the flea market?” Klaus said.

“Of course,” Ben said, gently pushing Klaus off of him so he could go get ready. 

There was a weekly flea market held at their nearby community centre that the two of them loved to go to every time they had the morning free. It was always 7 am to 3 pm, and being early risers, they always got there while the cool stuff was still out. 

When they had time, sometimes, they’d stop by just before 3 again. All the vendors didn’t want to put their stuff away, and would start selling things for much cheaper. Klaus had come home with three seasons of The Office, the first season of Firefly, the first two seasons of Glee, and a beautiful locket necklace once, all for 50 cents each. 

It used to take Klaus up to four hours to get ready for an outing, but he’d managed to get it down to almost half an hour if the outing didn’t matter that much, but only after almost a year of Ben threatening to throw out his hair dryer. 

Klaus put Jamiroquai on in the background, quickly brushing his teeth and rubbing in his SPF moisturizer. He hadn’t been feeling well enough to do the small things like that recently, and indulging in it felt really good. He lined his waterline with kohl liner, and was in the middle of applying mascara when Ben called out to him, asking if he was ready yet.

“Almost, sweetums, just have to pick my outfit,” Klaus called out.

Ben groaned loudly. “That always takes you the longest.”

“Pick something for me, then,” Klaus yelled back, going back to his mascara. He stared at himself in the mirror, eyes squinted, before realizing what he needed.

Glitter. He pulled out a creme glitter eyeshadow from the drawer, a pretty pink, and swiped a finger caked in the eyeshadow along each eyelid. Humming happily to himself, he washed his hands off. Pink was a good colour for him.

“Should I dye my hair pink?” Klaus asked as he wandered into his bedroom.

“No, because you’ll have to bleach it first,” Ben said, from where he was sitting on Klaus’ bed, surrounded by a couple different articles of clothing.

“Ah, Benny boy, always the angel on my shoulder,” Klaus said. He picked up the shirt Ben had picked out for him. It was a bright orange, floral abomination of an oversized blouse that he’d found at Goodwill. “And you know me so well! It warms my heart!”

“Just get changed,” Ben said, smiling to himself as he left the room, shutting the door behind him. 

Klaus pulled on the shirt, along with the black skinny jeans Ben had paired them with. He did a French tuck with the shirt before deciding that the whole shirt should be tucked into the waistline of the pants.

He threw on the locket he’d gotten, on top of the jade necklace he was already wearing, and announced very loudly to Ben that he was ready by dramatically throwing his door open and practically running into him.

Ben himself was dressed in his usual black jeans, slightly looser than Klaus’, but Klaus was just glad he’d opted for a muted red shirt as opposed to the dark hoodies he was usually seen in. It was way too hot for any kind of second layer. 

The community centre was close enough to walk to, and with Klaus’ long legs, and his hurrying Ben along, they got there just before eight. 

The whole thing was a lot larger than one would expect. There was the outdoor portion, surrounded by three halls, all connected, but distinctly separated. All in all, it would take a casual flea market go-er maybe an hour max to browse all the vendors, but Klaus just so happened to know almost every regular vendor.

Ben didn’t mind much, since he was friendly with most of them as well. It made it better that most of them discounted their already cheap prices for the brothers, too. Ben hadn’t been overly aware of the fluctuating prices until Allison had gone with them once, and suddenly items that they knew would have cost them a couple of dollars were priced at ten, or twenty dollars for her. The brothers didn’t even think the vendors knew who she was, they just knew that she looked flashy. 

“What’s up, Misty,” Klaus said, kissing their favourite outdoor vendor on the cheek. Ben followed behind, waving at her. 

“Usual. Had to be up at five to drag all this crap here, but it’s worth it to see your faces. Didn’t see you boys last week,” Misty said. 

“Busy life, as they say,” Klaus said, ignoring the conversation Ben struck up with her in order to browse her table. 

Misty’s table usually consisted of her old houseware from the 80’s, and Ben had had to put a limit on how often Klaus was allowed to shop her table. 

After a while, they moved on, browsing from table to table, Klaus greeting everyone enthusiastically, picking out a couple things here and there. 

Some vintage dangly earrings, a rose quartz necklace, a beautiful gold snake ring.

“I know what you’re doing,” Ben said after the fifth time Klaus had pulled him away from looking at movies to look at more clothes or jewelry. 

Klaus just hummed in acknowledgement. 

“You’re shopping for your date. It’s cute,” Ben said. 

Klaus ignored him, flipping through some old skirts, trying to hide his red face from Ben. It wasn’t so much as embarrassing that he was caught, but more embarrassing that Ben caught onto anything he did or thought. 

“He’s gonna think you look great, Klaus,” Ben said.

“You think so?” Klaus said, breaking his silence.

“Of course, you dumbass. With the amount of dedicated curation that goes into everything you own, how could he not,” Ben laughed. 

“Yeah, you’re right. Everything I own is kinda awesome,” Klaus said, grinning. 

When they finally got home, three hours later, Klaus realized he hadn’t even brought his phone with him out. He’d used it briefly in the morning to play music, but had forgotten about it afterwards. He hadn’t managed to keep a hold of one while living on the streets, and he was still getting used to being a little bit more dependent on it. 

Throwing his reusable flea market dedicated bag on the couch, he reached for it on the coffee table, and sat down on the floor, leaning against the couch.

“Perfectly good couch,” Ben mumbled, brushing past him to go to the bathroom. 

Klaus barely heard him, he was too busy glued to the screen. Dave had texted him just over an hour ago.

_‘I think you might have accidentally hooked me on caffeine, because I’m craving it like crazy this morning. I’m having to convince myself to wait til 5 to get my fix.’_

Was Dave just… killing time until he’d be able to see Klaus? There was no way that Dave was looking forward to seeing him that much. 

After deliberating on what to send back, Klaus decided on _‘I won’t mind if you cheat on me, as long as you still stop by.’_

Klaus quickly pressed send, and as soon as the message was delivered, he switched his phone off. The idea of waiting hours for a text from Dave that might take hours to come was already exhausting.

“I’ll make lunch, and you pick a new show to start?” Ben asked when he came out of the bathroom. They had finished Sense8 a couple of weeks ago and had just been watching movies since then.

Klaus hummed, already browsing through their Netflix account. Ben knew him well, but he knew Ben just as well. 

They ended up cosying up on the couch with a bowl of chicken curry each, binging the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer until Klaus had to leave for work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i swear most of this fic is just me projecting lmao. i dyed my hair pink tonight, go to the flea market most weekends, and have a nightly routine that involves popping a depression pill xx 
> 
> speaking of, seroquel is an anti-psychotic used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. 
> 
> all of you, after my last chapter: i'm so excited theyre going on a date!!!!!!!!  
> me: i'm excited too, but here's what might be my longest chapter featuring dave only in text messages
> 
> hope you guys enjoyed it despite the lack of dave!! drop a comment to let me know your thoughts!!  
> and hit me up on tumblr @ umbrellalesbian if you feel like it

**Author's Note:**

> also, this fic is based off of [this post](https://umbrellalesbian.tumblr.com/post/184330334392/as-someone-whos-worked-at-two-different) that i made on my tua blog!


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